Correlation Between Cognitive Style and Structure and Flow in Mobile Phone Interface: Comparing Performance and Preference of Korean and Dutch Users

This paper presents experiments conducted to determine the correlation between culturally different cognitive styles and issues of information architecture and flow, specifically in mobile phone interface. Korean and Dutch participants participated in on-screen prototype test and cognitive style test. In Experiment 1, each cultural group showed a different preference on the function/theme-related menus and individuals’ categorization styles had correlation with their preferences. Overall, the findings indicated that performance and preferences in a certain menu structure are associated with cognitive styles and it eventually helps to design culturally adapted interface. In Experiment 2, both groups showed more favorable attitude toward a Parallel approach and no significant correlation between cognitive styles and performance or preference were found. The correlation between prior experience and preference was not found to be significant in any tests.