"Think aloud can be especially problematic in high-context cultures, since the tester may be seen as higher status, and people are less likely to voice criticism of them. I've read that for testing in these kinds of countries (think it was Japan, but I'm not 100% at the moment), it can work better for the user to be asked what they think others will think of about the system being tested as opposed to asking what they themselves think."
This is an interesting claim. On one hand, yes, I agree and I know about Hofstede and culture dimensions and high-context cultures. I can see how the testing results might be skewed because the subject is disinclined to voice criticism. So if you take the same system, and a person from a high-context and low-context culture, and you perform the same kind of test, with other factors being equal, you might get a different result because of culture contextuality effects. On the other hand, if you take the view on think-aloud protocols which I personally consider to be classic/academic/correct, a think-aloud test means that the user cannot rationalize their use of the system. They should merely verbally report their actions as they go about using the system but not try to rationalize. Think of it as another instance of what users say vs what they do being different things. Even though think-aloud encompasses verbal communication, your objective is to mainly see what the user does and get some verbalized support for it, but not hear a more elaborate explanation/rationalization because it is likely to be wrong and inconsistent with what you actually witness. And to accomplish this, you need to condition the user the right way. In my view, this leaves no space for higher dimensions of context and power relations to interfere with the interaction between the user and the system. I have not actually done think-aloud tests outside the US to be able to support this with experience, but it would be interesting to hear from someone who has. rgds, Jaanus jaanuskase.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35326 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
