Cultural usability: New 'Contexts of Inquiry' in technical communication pedagogy.

摘要

Based on a pedagogical study of usability testing, intercultural emphases, and student interaction with peers/cultural Others in an introductory technical and professional writing course, this dissertation examines how students approached cultural difference in their writings (e.g., project proposals, usability test plans/results, and email correspondence with English-language students who joined the study as usability test participants). Drawing on theories in usability studies, postcolonialism, development and postdevelopment, this work identifies the challenges that cultural Others face in the world as well as the potential for new, more equitable usability research methodologies in technical communication pedagogy and practice.;The results of the study suggest that students (all of a western, dominant culture) tend to approach cultural difference with reductive, nation-state categories as commonplaces for cultural difference. The results also suggest that a strong focus on country as cultural category occurs in projects of students who chose corporate and/or consumerist textual artifacts for usability testing with peer usability testing. However, when students completed usability testing with cultural Others later in the semester, a more complex picture emerged. Although the tendency to focus on country as cultural category continued, some students began to account for, or show empathy toward, the specific differences of the culturally Other English-language students in the local context. In addition to these findings about how students in the study perceived cultural difference, the results show the importance of having a supportive institutional partner (as was the case with this study) while also highlighting the importance of a programmatic approach to cultural usability testing. In fact, the English-language students were very interested in participating as usability test participants in order to have the chance to interact with students whose first language is English. Only a programmatic solution could ensure that all culturally Other usability test participants could benefit from participation.