My project (Tirta Nirmaya) is a design prototype of a mobile application interface based on Jawi script, an ancient Malay indigenous script. The design prototype is the result of my exploration of techniques of designing user interfaces based on Jawi script. It is a culturally important development , because Jawi typography is a communicative and literary tool in the Malay culture , and Jawi has been the intellectual and political conveyor in the history of the Malays. The prototype in Tirta Nirmaya uses poetry as content because in the Malay culture, it is a literary genre that is used to narrate history, mythology, proverb, riddles and folk romances. To complete my research project, I needed to know more about two fields within Human-Computer Interaction – firstly, the development of a sustainable user interface. Secondly, I need to understand how my research can make a novel contribution to the epistemology of user interface design and cultural heritage content among globalised computer users My project involved analysis of the usefulness of Aaron Marcus’ specific guidelines for the critical aspects of globalisation in the user-interface design process. Marcus’ design process guidelines apply to the following functions: user demographics, technology, metaphors, mental models, navigation, interaction and appearance. Marcus and Gould (2012) assert that “global product distribution requires a strategy and tactics for the design process that infuse international and cultural requirements” (p. 343). To create such a strategy, I applied Marcus’ design process guidelines to two case studies. The first case study is the interface of a Malaysian government website (the Jawi Portal). The second case study relates to an interface I have designed for my research project, in order to gain an understanding of the usefulness of the theory and subsequent user-interface design technique for the Malay user. Locating a definitive design guideline for developing a user-interface for the Malay user proved difficult, for several reasons. Firstly, many academics have described the Malay culture as a diverse and complex one within a multicultural society. Artistically, the identity of the Malay culture is infused by other cultures, especially through social and intellectual traditions. While Chinese and Indian Malaysians use their indigenous typography as part of their user-interface, Malays use Latin typography. As a designer, how could I account for this diversity? Aaron Marcus, Ben Shneiderman and Catherine Plaisant recommend establishing design guidelines for multiple language and cultures. Secondly, the dwindling use of Jawi since 2001 among the youth in Malaysia and Brunei complicated the design of the user-interface. Leading cultural academics contend that Jawi is a crucial component of identity for the Malay people, and that the use of Jawi should be sustained by eternalising it in the public domain, which includes the development and use of software applications. Through the development of an application that utilises Jawi script, my aim is to encourage and cultivate the sustainable practice of this aspect of heritage within the multicultural society of Malaysia.
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