Abstract
This paper reports two studies investigating the role of culture on the design and personalisation of virtual spaces. The first study was a systematic analysis of 60 MSN virtual spaces belonging to British and Chinese students. The analysis concentrated on design patterns and communication style. The second study was an on-line survey designed to compare the relative importance of cultural values and personality traits on self-reported behaviour with, and preferences for, virtual space design. Results highlighted the importance of culture on design and communication in virtual spaces. Implications for interaction design are discussed.
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Notes
Deception cannot be excluded but it is believed to be a phenomenon of marginal relevance in social networks, especially when they have real-life connections or are restricted by invitation (Lampe et al. 2007).
In August 2006 MSN Spaces were substituted by Windows Live Spaces.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Di Hong for her help with data collection. My gratitude also goes to Liping Zhao and Sri Kurniawan who have been instrumental in helping me making sense of the data reported in this paper.
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De Angeli, A. Cultural variations in virtual spaces design. AI & Soc 24, 213–223 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0212-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0212-7