Nokia's low market share in Japan is bound to have compound causes. I wonder
whether "unfamiliar" or "indecipherable" icons were one of the reasons Nokia
didn't do well in Japan?
I remember seeing a research poster at the 2005 UPA conference in
Montreal that compared how well research participants in China, North
America, and Japan performed at predicting or identifying the functions of
over a dozen icons. The icons were from a particular maker of mobile phones
but I don't remember which one. Participants in China and USA performed
well. Japanese participants were "worse" than those in China and USA.
I asked the Japan-based researcher about her findings, and she
said lower recognition in Japan may have been because many phones in Japan
use different icons from the rest of the world -- I think* she said early
Japanese mobile phones used a set of icons unique to Japan. *There were
some language barriers.
I remember the gap between Japan and the other two countries being
about 10%, but remember that this was 3½ years ago. Anyway, that's the power
of first experiences and being first to market. Customers may not understand
10% of the designs from late(r) entrants.
------
Jerome Ryckborst, CUA, UPA member | Tel +1.604.689.1253
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