Cross-cultural differences in user-centred research: An international living lab survey

Abstract

Digital health applications and interactive technologies increasingly allow organisations to transcend national boundaries and expand the provision of tools and services to communities across the world. Making the transfer beyond the context in which applications were originally conceptualized is challenging, as these have to be tailored towards local end-user needs and regulations. Such information is not always readily available, which risks successful uptake in novel settings. Living labs help to bridge this gap, by performing user experience research and supporting user-centred design for cross-border projects. Dissimilarities in recruitment and participation of end users could however influence study outcomes. Therefore, this study explores to what extent living labs are aware of potential cross-cultural differences. The sample consists of 36 living labs from 20 countries, most focusing on health and care, the silver economy and information technology. Regional differences are reported on participants’ motivation and on the impact of gender, age, professional status and socio-economic status on participants’ contribution. Awareness of potential differences during recruitment and grouping and supporting equal contribution in sessions could improve the quality of user-centred research in international contexts, while still maintaining sufficient standardisation. Further research with larger international samples is needed to replicate and extend these findings.