Carolyn Y. Wei

Resistance to globalization: Language and Internet diffusion patterns in Uzbekistan

This paper discusses how the Internet can facilitate cultural expression that resists the homogenizing effects of globalization. It examines how local cultures adapt their linguistic behavior and language choices to the Internet and express themselves in culturally meaningful ways without being subsumed by a global agenda. The research reported in this paper is based on a survey administered in Uzbekistan, a post-Soviet, multilingual society that is experiencing the pressures of global culture as well as Russian culture. Literature about language, nationalism, and Internet use in multilingual societies is presented, and the linguistic setting of Uzbekistan is described. The results of the survey relevant to Internet use, online language choices, and perceptions of language on the Web are reported here.

Internet-based research: providing a foundation for web-design guidelines

In this article, we propose that remote, internet-based studies of real users interacting with real websites on their own computers at a time and place convenient for them will provide a solid empirical base from which researchers can extrapolate reliable and valid web-design guidelines. After a discussion of research methods that have been used to support the principles that underlie web-design guidelines, we review some of the methodological issues associated with internet-based research and tools for supporting such work. Given advances in technology, the multitude of users online, and emerging technologies with new interfaces, the time has come for technical communication researchers to enter the arena of internet-based research and conduct remote experiments to support the web-design guidelines that they espouse.

Studying mobile phone use in context: cultural, political, and economic dimensions of mobile phone use

This paper discusses the need for studying mobile phone use within the context of a society, with consideration of the cultural, political, and economic factors that influence phone use. Such contextual study is especially valuable in a culture that sharply differs from the industrial, predominantly Western perspective in which mobile phones and applications are developed. This paper presents a case study of mobile phone use in Uzbekistan, a Central Asian republic with a unique socio-political environment that is experiencing growing mobile phone use. A review of literature related to mobile phone use in developing, non- Western countries are presented. Some results of interviews about perceptions and use of mobile phones in Tashkent are discussed.

Towards the perfect infrastructure for usability testing on mobile devices

In this paper, we describe various setups that allow usability professionals to conduct effective user studies on mobile devices. We describe the factors relevant when building a solution for mobile device observation and the various designs we worked with in the Google user experience research environment as we iterated to meet changing study needs. We highlight several systems that can successfully be used in an industry environment, including a novel setup that is fully portable, can be used in a usability lab as well as in the field, accommodates a large variety of different mobile devices, and allows for live observation by product teams around the world.

Influencing web-browsing behavior with intriguing and informative hyperlink wording

Textual hyperlinks are important mainstays of the navigation systems of websites. The study presented here examines how the wording of hyperlinks in a navigation menu and embedded within the body text of a web page can influence users’ browsing behavior, perceptions, and comprehension. Five experimental conditions were tested that varied hyper-link wording (generic, intriguing, and informative) in a navigation menu and in embedded links. Significant differences were found between the experimental conditions concerning number of links clicked, number of pages viewed, and inferential comprehension, with higher scores for study participants in conditions that had a navigation menu with generic hyperlink wording and embedded hyperlinks with intriguing or informative wording.

Methods for assessing web design through the internet

Web design guidelines are often derived from best practices, conventional wisdom, or small-scale usability studies conducted in labs. We contend that if Web design guidelines are to inform the design of Web sites serving varied audiences with varied needs, the guidelines must be derived from empirical research that assesses users in their native environments as they interact with real Web sites. While we believe that the delivery of a remote Web-based experiment has many potential benefits, we acknowledge that it can be difficult to exercise experimental control so as to acquire reliable data, capture user behavior unobtrusively, extract meaningful information from server logs, and collect valid survey data. Therefore, we report on how we addressed some of the challenges of conducting remote empirical studies of the effect of navigational cues on Web browsing behavior.

Social telepresence bakeoff: Skype group video calling, google+ hangouts, and microsoft avatar kinect

This panel compares across recently released products that enable groups of people to socialize online using rich media (video, avatars). Each tool takes a different approach toward online socializing. The panelists will compare and contrast the design features and rationale of each system, review what has been learned from studying their usage so far, and elicit stories of how people in the audience have been using these tools. This discussion will help us learn how these tools are being used and identify design implications for future work in developing new ways to support socializing.

Capturing Mobile Phone Usage: Research Methods for Mobile Studies

The small form factor and constant presence of mobile phones create unique challenges to the study of their use. Mobile phone use can be difficult for outsiders to observe because of the intimate nature of the devices. Mobile use can also be multimodal (voice and text), further complicating data collection. The mobility and multitasking that are facilitated with the device pose logistical challenges for data capture as well. This paper presents a literature review of innovative methodologies for mobile phone studies. Some of these methods include cameras and other recording devices, diary studies, and controlled experiments. This paper also presents the multimethod approach that was used in an original field study of mobile phone use for supporting personal and romantic relationships in India: questionnaire, interview, participant observation, and mobile diary.

Using statistical power analysis to tune-up a research experiment: a case study

This work presents a case study of the use of statistical power analysis in a research study. When the University of Washington researchers ran a pilot study to investigate the effect of link wording on Web site browsing behavior and comprehension, they obtained results that were not significant on most dependent measures. To analyze the results and discover whether link wording really had no effect, they first turned to statistical power analysis to see whether they might be committing a type II error (accepting a false null hypothesis). They did in fact find that the power of the study was too low and the number of participants too few. This work explains how they used the results of the power analysis to redesign the study and increase its power and the likelihood of obtaining significant results if true between-group differences did in fact exist.

A tool for supporting Web-based empirical research: providing a basis for Web design guidelines

Current Web design guidelines are often based on little more than intuition or anecdotal evidence. When research is cited to support Web design guidelines, that research has frequently been conducted as part of a small usability study or a print-media study. Whether such sources can be validly generalized into standard Web design guidelines is questionable but the practice is widespread. Professional technical communicators may be interested in conducting experiments to determine what Web design elements most benefit their audiences, paying attention to how those users interact with their own computers at a place and time of their own choosing. Conducting such research, however, requires a level of technical expertise usually reserved for programmers. To address this problem, our research team has been developing a tool to aid non-programmers in conducting Web-based experiments of Web design features. The ultimate goal of such experiments would be the development of research-based Web design guidelines.