Memeterview: Meme based culture elicitation tool for cross cultural user studies

#User research #Cultural Barrier #Research Methodology

Role & Context: Master’s Thesis for the M.S. Degree at KAIST

Research Background

Advances in technology and new communication tools have led to the globalization of the economy. Companies expand into multiple countries to gain a competitive advantage in their field.

(Li & Hölttä-Otto, 2020)

Online surveys and interviews are often used in field studies and ethnographic research because they are more time and cost effective than field dispatch and other qualitative surveys. (Sandy Q, Qu, 2011)

Danger of simplifying and idealizing the interview situation based on the assumption that interviewees are competent and moral truth tellers “acting in the service of science and producing the data needed to reveal” their experiences and/or the facts of the organization under study (Alvesson, 2003, p. 14).

Why Meme?

Tacit

Authentic

Humorous

Pervasive

Accessible

Agile

To overcome the current limitation, I suggest the use of Internet memes. As observed, given that a meme serves as a digital language capable of transmitting cultural information effectively, it is pervasive, accessible, and agile. Furthermore, owing to the nature of memes, which often encompass inside jokes and self-replicate, they are humorous, tacit, and authentic

💡 Research Goal: Designing a meme-based culture elicitation tool in cross cultural context where designers at globalized market can discover subjacent values and UX of the global targets efficiently.

Study Overview 

Study 1-1 : Interview with domestic designers

Goal: Discover the current difficulties and needs of domestic designers with the research of foreign targets.

RQ1. In what area designers face challenges in the research of foreign targets who have cultural differences?

Study 1-2: Memeterview tool design

Goal: Design the Memeterview modules based on designer interview findings

RQ2. How can meme based culture elicitation tool can be designed as the solution to discover subjacent cultural values of the targets and what are the considerations for using this tool in practice?

Study 2 : Memeterview tool evaluation

Goal: Evaluate the Memeterview and discover the tool usability and future possibilities

RQ3. Does the tool have potential in practically eliciting subjacent cultural values

Findings

1. Memeterview helps designers to build a quick and easy rapport

1-1) Rapport formation through meme positivism

Comical expressions and appearances of people in memes develop positive perceptions and intimacy through the universality of laughter and humor codes. 

1-2) Rapport formation through consensus formation

Domestic designers often compare the memes of their own country and discover cultural similarities and this led to a shared feelings.

1-3) Rapport formation through interoperable meme formats

Memes from different cultures, but using the same meme template, made the designers’ interpretation more intuitive and familiar with memes.

2. Memeterview helps designer to access tacit information

2-1) Sensitive information that is difficult to talk about

Humoristic and sarcastic expressions in lessen the burden of designers and foreign subjects to discuss about sensitive issues such as politics, gender, ..

2-2) Information on humor points that are difficult to express in words

Subtle emotions, humor points, national identities, which are difficult to put into words were able to efficiently elicit during the memeterview in a short period of time.

3. Memeterview as an intuitive means of communication between two participants from different cultural backgrounds

3-1) Effective in expressing the foreign target’s feelings and thoughts.

Memes using GIPHY acted as a means to capture subtle emotions by broadening the range of expressions compare to the existing basic good and sad emotions.

3-2) Intuitive delivery of holistic information within the meme

Designers were also helped to develop visual intuition and judgement about specific nuances of a given culture based on memes in the form of holistic images, texts, GIFs, and videos.