Angeliki Tevekeli's 80 % seminar - User Interface and User Experience design considerations for cross-cultural learning platforms

Welcome to Angeliki Tevekeli's 80% seminar

Time: October 2nd, 3-5 PM

Room: only on zoom

Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/my/gulan

Discussant: Calkin Suero Montero (Uppsala University)

Title: User Interface and User Experience design considerations for cross-cultural learning platforms

Abstract: Cross-cultural learning platforms have become central infrastructures for delivering education across global contexts. However, designing learning environments that support culturally grounded, personalized, adaptive, accessible, inclusive and equitable learning experiences remains a significant challenge. Although these platforms are expected to support stakeholders from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, they often fail to adequately address the complexity of users’ needs and the cultural diversity that characterizes both users and designers. This thesis investigates how User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design influence the quality and effectiveness of learning experiences in cross-cultural learning platforms and how culturally grounded design can contribute to more effective digital learning environments.

The study is organized around two complementary research axes. The first investigates the experiences, expectations, and challenges of stakeholders who interact with cross-cultural learning platforms, including students, educators, administrators, technical support staff, and design and development teams. It explores how these stakeholders perceive and evaluate learning experiences and identifies design factors that influence usability, accessibility, inclusivity, engagement, and learning effectiveness across culturally diverse educational settings. The second research axis examines the role of UI/UX designers in shaping cross-cultural learning environments, focusing on how their cultural backgrounds, educational experiences, and professional expertise influence design decisions and, consequently, learning experiences.

This thesis adopts an exploratory mixed-methods research design informed by Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT). The research integrates evidence from four interconnected studies employing contextual inquiry, interviews, semi-structured discussions, focus groups, participatory design, case studies, qualitative experimentation, questionnaires, learning analytics, and critical theoretical reflection. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis together with In Vivo, emotion, pattern, and versus coding, while quantitative data were used to complement and triangulate findings. The research draws upon theories from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), User Experience Design (UXD), Learning Experience Design (LXD), Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL), and cross-cultural UI/UX design, ensuring consistent conceptual grounding across usability, accessibility, inclusivity, effectiveness, and learning experience.

The findings demonstrate that effective cross-cultural learning platforms require more than functional and user-centered design approaches. They require culturally grounded UI/UX practices that integrate cultural awareness, pedagogical considerations, stakeholder participation, and mechanisms for personalization and adaptation throughout the design process. The findings further demonstrate that designers’ cultural and educational backgrounds influence design decisions that shape users’ learning experiences, highlighting the need for interdisciplinary competencies in the design of digital learning environments.

This thesis contributes to Human-Computer Interaction, User Experience Design and Research, User Interface Design, Learning Experience Design, and Technology-Enhanced Learning by advancing a holistic understanding of UI/UX design considerations for culturally grounded cross-cultural learning platforms. It offers theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions by integrating the perspectives of digital learning platform users and UI/UX designers into a set of UI/UX design considerations for the design and development of more culturally grounded, personalized, and adaptive learning platforms.

Supervisors: Jan Gulliksen, Ali Mohamed, Vasiliki Mylonopoulos