Mobile phones play an important role in almost every culture. What makes them so special is that they can be used at any time, at any place and at any environment without an extensive training. This condition leads to a high demand on usability. The devices must be usable and intuitiv in their utilization.

An important aspect when it comes to the use in different cultures is the culturability. Different cultures have different preferences and values when using mobile phones. This different issues must be taken into consideration when designing new mobile systems for a special cultural market.

These intercultural issues in design and use of mobile phones have been studied by several usability experts and some of their findings are abstracted in an article for a lecture on intercultural communication. The article is written in german but the used literature is completly in english.

Download: Interkulturelle Apekte mobiler Anwendungen