Teaching: Global UX 🗺️

The course covers general topics on designing for international audiences. Topics in international UX include: cultural schemata and contrastive rhetoric, international user research, and designing for emerging markets. We will especially focus on designing user experiences around intelligent systems. The course will thus briefly introduce how to design user experiences for intelligent systems (AI based platforms) and connect this theory with theory on designing for international audiences.

Lectures include:
  • Concepts about culture and cultural models, and how those influence design decisions in UX, especially for intelligent interfaces.
  • The role international policies and geopolitics play in deciding what type of interfaces to implement, especially intelligent user interfaces.
  • An overview and functional understanding of the different types of intelligent interfaces that exist and the critical points in their pipeline where usability and societal outcomes can be impacted.

Course Objectives.

Upon completion of this course, you will:
  • Have Foundational Knowledge about how culture and culture models influence the design of interfaces.​
  • Be aware of the role that history and tradition play in designing interfaces.​
  • Understand the role that international policies and geopolicies play in deciding the type of interface to design.
  • Be able to discuss and analyze the impact culture will have on a given user interface.​
  • Discuss solutions to address cultural conflicts when designing interfaces.​
Want to teach this class at your own university? Please reuse my slides and assignments. I'd love to hear from you about how my course material is working out and how I could improve them. Please email me!

Week 1: Introduction to International UX.

Readings covered in class: Global UX, Chap. 1, The Start of the Journey Bohannan, Shakespeare in the Bush Rothman, The Meaning of “Culture”
Slides:Week 1: Introduction to International UX.
Assignment: 1-page summary of who you are 📕:
Include information about:
  • Your cultural and linguistic background.
  • Background in UX.​
  • A bit of what you know or have done with artificial intelligence.
  • What you're looking to get out of class.

Week 2-3: Culture and UX:

Readings that will be discussed in class: Slides:Weeks 2-3:Culture and UX

Writing Assignments: reflection on Hofstefe's Cultural Dimension and Current Global Events 📕:
  1. Reflection on Hofstefe's Cultural Dimension. The first blog post should be a reflection on Hofstefe's cultural dimension.​ Write up a recap of Hofstede’s cultural dimension. ​What aspect of his model do you agree with?​ What aspects do you disagree with? ​Explain. 2 pages, single-spaced

  2. Reflection on Current Global Events. The second blog post should be a reflection of a current world event. In specific, the news of: "Top oil producers except Mexico agree to output cuts: OPEC." Use Hofstede cultural Dimensions to write about how the world event might be viewed in:​Countries with High Individualism and Low Power Distance; Countries with Low Individualism and High Power Distance. Explain in a half a page, single-spaced. Consider using social media and news sources as data to motivate your reflection. For instance:
    • https://twitter.com/econokafka/status/1248431340472524801?s=20
    • https://twitter.com/nayrazz/status/1248387620821860358?s=20
    • https://www.yahoo.com/news/opec-puts-heads-together-over-oil-output-cuts-002015693.html
Mini Design Assignment: Designing an Intelligent Assistant for Latin America 🤖:
Imagine you have been charged with designing an intelligent assistant for Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help the government deliver better services to citizens. Example of the services the virtual assistant could help with:​
  • Help citizens get their passport.​
  • Help refugees apply for visas to Mexico.
Create a blog post that:
  1. Describes what cultural dimensions/elements are relevant for the design of your virtual assistant.​
  2. Explains what interface design features would your virtual assistant have to help the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attract and help citizens? ​Relate your design decisions to some of the culture theories we have seen in class.
  3. Provides a diagram and brief description of your virtual assistant (1 paragraph).​ You can use mockups or Story boards. The goal is to communicate your idea. You are free to select the end-users with whom your virtual assistant would interact
The blog post is 2 pages, single-spaced.
Related Links:
  • Official Site of Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: https://www.gob.mx/sre
  • Related Wikipedia Articles:​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretariat_of_Foreign_Affairs_(Mexico)