Do Cross-Cultural Differences in Visual Attention Patterns Affect Search Efficiency on Websites?

Amanda Baughan, Nigini Oliveira, Tal August, Naomi Yamashita, Katharina Reinecke

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Prior work in cross-cultural psychology and neuroscience has shown robust variations in visual attention patterns. People from East Asian societies, in which a holistic thinking style predom-inates, have been found to attend to contextual information in scenes more thanWesterners, whose tendency to think analytically expresses itself in greater attention to foreground objects. This paper applies these fndings to website design, using an online study to evaluate whether Japanese (N=65) remember more and are faster at fnding contextual website information than US Americans (N=84). Our results do not support this hypothesis. Instead, Japan-ese overall took signifcantly longer to fnd information than US participants-a diference that was exacerbated by an increase in website complexity-suggesting that Japanese may holistically take in a website before engaging with detailed information. We discuss implications of these fndings for website design and cross-cultural research.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationMaking Waves, Combining Strengths
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450380966
DOIs
StatePublished - May 6 2021
Externally publishedYes
Event2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Making Waves, Combining Strengths, CHI 2021 - Virtual, Online, Japan
Duration: May 8 2021May 13 2021

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Making Waves, Combining Strengths, CHI 2021
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityVirtual, Online
Period5/8/215/13/21

Keywords

  • Culture
  • Visual attention
  • Website search efciency

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Software

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