CROSS-CULTURAL INTERFACE DESIGN AND THE CLASSROOM-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN TAIWAN

This study examined whether using localized interface designs would make a difference in users’ learning results and their perceptions of the interface design in a classroom learning environment. This study also sought to learn more about users’ attitudes toward the localized interface features. To assess the impact of using localized interfaces on students’ academic achievements, a 2 x 2 two-way factorial ANCOVA was used to evaluate whether there was a significant difference in students’ post-test scores between students in a control group and experiment groups.  A two-way MANOVA was applied to examine whether localized icons and layout would bring changes in users’ perceptions of interface design. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the participants’ reaction to localized user interface features. Findings indicated that applying a localized user interface improved neither software usability and adaptability nor the cultural representations and conveyance although culture could affect Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and software usability.