Interaction designer here...
There were a lot of very good points touched on in this discussion, and
I think the bottom line is still that saying "Japanese usability
efforts being inferior or nonexistent" is comparing apples to oranges:
1. Cultural and linguistic effects on the user interface are huge,
probably more than most people imagine. For example, that "more
features/buttons is better" mentality is very much embraced here,
whereas Europeans seem to prefer a more streamlined approach. When you
design a UI for Japanese users, all kinds of parameters are different
-- the menu depth/breadth balance (= number of options simultaneously
presented to the user), textual area and layout, colours, feature
weighting, you name it. It's only natural that a European user would
find such an interface cluttered, overly subtle, and loaded with
"unimportant" features.
I'm actually happier to see a UI that is narrowly focused on a
particular audience, at the expense of alienating some users, than the
"one-size-fits-all" approach so often crammed down the throat of users
around the world.
Then again Johan Bengtsson's original post was related to Japanese
phones sold in Europe to European users. There's no excuse for not
doing one's homework there. That's like the Americans trying to sell
cars in Japan. By all means please tell the vendors that usability is
the key to their success in Europe.
2. I think Juergen made a very good point about the difficulty of
conducting usability testing in Japan. Methods that often work well in
the West ("Say the first thing that comes to your mind") won't work as
well here as those that rely less on introspection and more on direct
observation.
3. That said, I think usability will be very well received in Japan.
All my Japanese engineer friends said they'd gladly give me a job if
they could. :) But seriously, the existing group decision making
process, emphasis on quality evaluation, and humility (especially
towards understanding Western users) make for a very ripe climate in
which to sell usability.
The main hurdle, I think, is to standardize methods that work reliably
in Japan. Acutally, one would expect a deeper history of usability in
Japan as work had to be done to understand the problems of porting and
marketing Western technology, as well as the whole text input issue
that's been a perennial topic of concern. Why are there not more
usability professionals employed as such in Japan? Is it simply a
marketing function?
On Sunday, June 15, 2003, at 04:05 AM, Jason Pollard wrote:
> If there is anybody on this ML whose sole job is usability testing
> (Japanese or
> otherwise in Japan) please speak up now. Otherwise, let it be known
> that THERE
> ARE NO USABILITY EXPERTS IN JAPAN. I back this up with my own
> experience
But there are such people on this list, and they work in Akasaka. :)
Cheers and good usability,
Joseph Luk
Received on Mon Jun 16 06:24:52 2003