Cultural and Linguistic Variables in Usability Testing

Abstract

Canada is a country where more than 1 in 5 are immigrants. While industries and public services in the country interact with a diversity of users, it is unclear if the cultural and linguistic background of their users can influence their perceived usability. We conducted a usability test of the website of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada to explore cultural and linguistic variables during usability testing, by using cultural dimensions, global English proficiency index and personality test. Our results show that the dimensions of Individualism, Time orientation, Power distance, and Uncertainty avoidance do influence participants' answers. We found that Indian participants were more comfortable with the website's English level while Chinese and Nigerians criticized it more. This thesis concludes that to assure the consistency, reliability and reproducibility of research results and protocols, researchers should recruit participants from multiple cultural and linguistic backgrounds to gather a general ideation of the usability. Since this thesis revolves around cultural and linguistic variables, I decided to thank the people who supported me during the past two years in their first language. J'aimerais avant tout remercier ma superviseure de thèse Dr. Audrey Girouard pour sa patience, sa disponibilité et surtout ses judicieux conseils, qui ont contribué à alimenter ma réflexion. Merci de m'avoir donné l'opportunité de m'introduire dans un milieu qui était tout nouveau pour moi il y a deux ans et de partager tes connaissances et savoir dans le domaine. I would also like to thank everyone I worked with at the Creative Interactions Lab. Thank you for listening, offering me advice, and supporting me through this entire process. You made this experience much more enjoyable than it would've been working alone.