AN OVERVIEW OF CROSS CULTURAL USABILITY FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA DESIGN, LOCALISATION AND STUDIES IN TURKEY

‘The rise in the number of people using computers and the internet in the last 10 years caused the research subject of cross cultural usability to be more important under the topic of usability. This subject examines the effects of culture on the interface design targeted for a specific culture or several cultures. Lately, many researchers have been working for adapting the cultural research methods mainly used for the printed media, to the interactive media. This article discusses the development of the cross-cultural usability area in the last 10 years in general after a brief summary of the usability subject and continues with an evaluation of the studies conducted about Turkey and the Turkish user. The usability studies related with the design of an interface targeting a user group belonging to a specific culture are examined under the subject of localisation. With all these researches in mind, we are discussing on the method of localisation studies targeting the Turkish user. This research emphasizes the need for a long study process of three stages: The evaluation of present interface designs, the design guideline that is going to be prepared with the help of these analyses and the usability studies on the interfaces that are to be designed according to the guideline. The article ends up with a conclusion expressing the necessity of a cross-cultural usability research and the preparation of a design guideline for the development of interface design of information systems.