Cultural usability revisited; or Why are Finnish kids not making a scene?

I wanted to address a topic from what I believe was my very first entry for this blog, on cultural usability. One quote in particular is useful for this discussion: “the ways in which users learn and adopt new roles and rules vary by culture.” Now, remember my trip to Vienna last weekend, and the resulting blog entry? I wrote about a specific user behaviour we see emerging within some cultures, like the youth in Vienna and London, but not among others, specifically not among the youth in Helsinki. In my eyes, this group activity of music-listening on one mobile device is quite annoying and obtrusive. Now granted, I only ride public transportation once in a while, but I’ve asked around among those who do use it more regularly and their observations are similar. It is just not happening (note: thank goodness) here in Helsinki…YET.

This is a really good example of cultural differences in usability. This begs the question: Why would the Finnish youth not adopt this type of behaviour, of listening (sometimes loudly) to music on their mobile devices with their friends while riding public transportation?

Well, I’ll tell you a story and maybe we’ll see the connection. When my Finnish husband and I were living in the US, friends and family would unfailingly say and ask the following: “We saw a news piece on 60 Minutes about Finns and tango dancing. Are Finnish people really depressed all the time?” Note: the tango dancing from this 60 Minute piece is not the sexy, fast-paced tango dancing we imagine but the somewhat slow, quite melancholy stuff. Nonetheless, the answer to the silly question is a resounding NO.

However, the Finnish culture, especially when compared with American or other “outgoing” cultures, does value quietness and humbleness; they do not value “being seen or noticed”—in fact, I often observe parents hush their toddlers and babies on public transportation, even when they are barely making a peep and/or sitting well-behaved in their seats or strollers. Children are taught, perhaps not intentionally, that it is a negative thing to draw attention to themselves. Could this be why the Finnish youth are not easily and quickly adopting this mobile behaviour? I don’t know. But it makes me wonder…

My point here is that developers need to consider how their products will be used, by whom, and in what context. They need to understand that not everyone will adopt behaviours in similar ways. These tend to vary and change all the time; in fact, the youth are some of our best inventors of new mobile behaviours. Good quality user research is needed to gain a clear understanding of cultural differences in user behaviours, attitudes and needs.