2. Culturally-Aware HCI Systems

Culture influences human–computer interaction (HCI) heavily, since the end-user is always operating within a certain cultural context. First, cultural and informational factors jointly influence the look and feel of interactive systems, for example, widget position or information density. In addition, each individual develops a specific culture (eating style, walking style, etc.)—that is, their own characteristics, behavior, attitudes, and values. Consequently, individual adaptivity is sometimes a key factor in covering the disparate needs of culturally but uniquely imprinted end-users; this may involve such tasks as reducing the workload by recognizing the individual expectations of each end-user. This improves usability, shortens training units, and improves universal access. For Culturally-Aware HCI systems socio-cultural information is used and modeled in the design and application of the human–computer interface (HCI) of such systems. In this chapter, we describe a Culturally-Aware HCI system in the context of automotive navigation that culturally adapts its interaction with the end-user over time. We analyze the way in which culture influences reasoning and the way the users feel and behave in HCI in order to establish a model for automatically adapting HCI to users using a Culturally-Aware adaptive HCI system. Fundamental theoretical reflections are presented and exemplified, and design and functioning are thus described in both theory and practice.