UX Week Presentation from Steve Portigal - Cross-Cultural Research

Cross-cultural Research: Adventures in a Parallel Universe UX Week August, 2006 Steve Portigal Portigal Consulting

Portigal Consulting
Synthesis of
user research
design
business strategy
Discover new insights about customers
Consumers, B2B
US, and global
Recommendations for actions in response to new insights

Ethnography
Ethnographic interviews
Video ethnography
Depth-interviews
Contextual research
Home visits
Experience modeling
Design research
User-centered design
Observational research
Camera studies
User safaris
“User Research?”

Ethnography
Ethnographic interviews
Video ethnography
Depth-interviews
Contextual research
Home visits
Experience modeling
Design research
User-centered design
One-on-ones
Camera studies
User safaris
“User Research?” What-ever!

Examine users (consumers or other) in their own context
What are they doing (“usage”)
What does it mean
Infer (interpret/synthesize/etc.)
Find the connections
The researcher is the “apparatus”
Apply to business or design problems
Use products, services, packaging, design to tell the right story
User Research

Three Depths of the Process Observing customers Interviewing customers Observing cultural context

How are people doing <something>?
Look for and document processes
What are the sequence of events and duration of a shopping trip?
How does a Whopper get made? Who does what, and in what order?
Identify what you want to know more about
Why ?
Observing People

Who to interview?
People that are involved in your activity
People that are no longer involved in your activity
People that refuse to be involved in your activity
People that are over-the-top-involved in your activity
Balance of agenda and open-ended
Conversational (but they talk 80%)
Ask follow-up questions
Adopt their language and terminology
Manage flow - Let them tell the story they want to tell you – often an “irrelevant” topic will be strongly tied to the main topic in their mind
Interviewing People

Humans Beings are Judging Beings

Cultural Context
What is normal?
Look at artifacts in the culture
Media
Products
Advertisements
Street culture
Trends and fads
Normal isn’t “right or wrong” – it’s the set of background rules that define much of what people choose or ignore

What is Normal?

What Happens When We Leave Our Culture? Tips. Tricks.

Crossing Cultures
The backdrop (the stuff we normally ignore) is unfamiliar
Everything seems perturbed from the norm
We are trying to understand a cultural model – the connections between people, artifacts, and other factors
The artifacts are different
Check our assumptions
A visceral experience – constant synthesis
This will be more impactful than outsourcing the research to a “local” firm
See www.janchipchase.com for a steady stream of artifacts and questions from “other” cultures

CultureVenture provides immersive and inspirational experiences in foreign cultures to help you discover and make sense of the notable differences in your other markets.
We provide experiences , insight , observations , and analysis . We’re not tour guides, and we’re not experts in how the rest of the world works.
http://www.culture venture .net
And now a brief commercial interruption

CultureVenture provides immersive and inspirational experiences in foreign cultures to help you discover and make sense of the notable differences in your other markets.
We provide experiences , insight , observations , and analysis . We’re not tour guides, and we’re not experts in how the rest of the world works.
http://www.culture venture .net

Finding Participants
Partner with a firm in the destination country
They may also provide interpreters
Partner a local firm with connections or offices in the destination country
Use social networks
Make sure to do some basic grounding research to localize your screening criteria
i.e., do they have broadband widely adopted? Do people live with their parents until they are older? Do the same brands drive the market that do here?

Logistics and Location
Allow a day in your schedule to get acclimated…
… and a day for “cultural loading”
Take advantage of your location
Take pictures, collect literature and other examples
Figure out what you’ll use it for later
Do as much synthesis, note-writing, report preparation as you can before you come back
Read a local newspaper
What do you notice that is different?
Top stories are sure to be repeated elsewhere during your visit

Interviewing in Another Country
Foreigners, even Americans, who are genuinely interested in the country they are studying are often welcomed as visitors
Respondents will take on the burden of helping you understand their country – as hosts, it is their duty
They may be willing to “meet you halfway” in making the connection
You are naive, so asking dumb questions is expected
You can’t be “down” in a foreign country – your clothes, gait, odor, hair style, accent will typically give you away sooner or later

Interpretation
Don’t call it translation
Get referrals and hang onto folks you like
Find those familiar with “market research”
Thick accents may be difficult to transcribe or follow on video
Brief your interpreters
Review the interview guide
Describe the process of the interview and their role
Communicate the project goals
Use them to help you avoid violating cultural rules (do or don’t accept offered drinks in the home, etc.)
They legitimize you when you enter a respondent’s home
Respondent may look to the interpreter to take a leadership role

Interpretation
Interpretation creates a very entertaining “language soup” between interviewer(s), respondent(s), and interpreter
You ask a question
where is the eye contact, who is nodding in “understanding?”
Interpretation
Respondent answers the question
where is eye contact, are you nodding to words you don’t understand?
Interpretation
Simultaneous, or small to large “chunks”
Where is everyone’s eye contact?
This takes practice (for you and the respondent)
Follow-up question
where is the eye contact, who is nodding in “understanding?”
No tactical advice here – find what works best for all concerned – it’s a collaboration between all parties
This “work” to communicate is a proxy for the ethnographic process itself
Enjoy it

Cultural Context

So What?
Each of these “mundane” observations reveal a crucial cultural need or driver or difference
Space
Customer service
Kawaii
Flavors
Navigation
Public Space
Advertising
Branding and Advertising
Social Gestures

Interesting tension between
People are all the same no matter where you go
People are completely different
Consider the insider/outsider model for any research in another community
You may not appear or act like a foreigner, but perhaps you can think like one
Looking outside ourselves is a provocative way to learn about ourselves
Sometimes the further away you look, the more you see
Conclusion

Contact Information Steve Portigal Portigal Consulting PO Box 370252 1133 Cedar St. Montara, CA 94037-0252 (650) 563-9839 [email_address] http://www.portigal.com

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