Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design
A Semiotic Perspective

The semiotic perspective of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) can give you insight into values, beliefs, and reference systems of the users that often go unnoticed when using traditional HCI approaches. Cross-Cultural Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design: A Semiotic Perspective focuses on the semiotic approach in product, services, and system design, and emphasizes the semiotic and linguistic aspects in HCI and user experience (UX). The book shows you how to leverage these insights when creating useful, usable, and appealing user interfaces.

The book covers the theoretical background of HCI semiotics with emphasis on the interaction elements present in the user interface, the methodology to work with them to achieve useful insights both for design and evaluation, and the results obtained compared to traditional UX methods. It then examines a cross-cultural study presenting a semiotic method for design and evaluation in a different cultural background, and discusses the resulting insights, which are then structured as guidelines for HCI/UX design for Chinese users.

Although extensive research has been done in HCI semiotics and the cultural aspects of HCI, this book differs by exploring how these fields are informed by the linguistic perspective. It presents a novel approach to cross-cultural HCI/UX, covers the latest research in the field, and brings a set of tools and methods to benefit the design process by taking a semiotic perspective. It also supplies a set of design guidelines for developing more usable, useful, and appealing products, services, and systems.

Introduction. Semiotics of interaction. Summary. Semiotic foundation. UI Languages. Research Methods. UI Annotation and Analysis Results. Discussion, Future Work. Ideology of Interaction. Summary. Rhetoric of UI Languages. Ideology and HCI. Conclusion. Culture of Interaction. Summary. Comparison of UI Languages. Research Methods. Interview and Results Analysis. Proposed Guidelines for Chinese UI Design. Discussion, conclusion. Conclusion. References. Appendices.

Jan Brejcha obtained his Ph.D. in Interaction and Communication Design from a semiotic perspective at the New Media Studies, Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. As part of his doctoral thesis, he developed a semiotics and language-based design, analysis, and evaluation methodology. He is a lecturer at Charles University and a consultant for many HCI-related projects in the academic and corporate field. He is an accomplished author and has expertise in user-centered and semiotic design and analysis techniques, as well as a solid background in machine tools, small-business administration and marketing. He earned his master's degree in Media and Communication studies from the Electronic Culture and Semiotics department at Charles University, where he completed his graduate thesis "Between Code and Design: Towards a philosophy of interaction design".