PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE PERCEPTION OF UI/UX DESIGNBY REPRESENTATIVES OF ASIAN AND EUROPEAN CULTURES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/1728.2748.2026.105.9-15Keywords:
reaction time, analytical cognitive style, holistic cognitive style, UI/UX design, cross-cultural approachAbstract
Background. Depending on the cultural context that shaped a person's cognitive style, the response to the same UI/UX-design can vary dramatically. This is important to explore given the globalization of digital products, where the same application or website is used by millions of users from different cultural backgrounds. The aim of the work is to highlight the results of a study of how culturally conditioned cognitive styles – analytical (typical for Europeans) and holistic (characteristic of Asians) – affect the psychophysiological reactions of users when interacting with digital interfaces.
Methods. Participants' reaction time (RT) and number of errors (NOE) were recorded for two types of user interfaces representing Asian and European approaches to UI/UX-design: European UI style (minimalism, simple navigation, low visual complexity) and Asian UI style (high visual density, multi-level information structure, complex navigation), as well as subjective assessment of task difficulty. The sample consisted of 80 people (40 from the Asian cultural group, 20 men and women, and 40 from the European cultural group, 18 men and 22 women) aged 20 to 33. Each participant interacted with both types of interfaces – one that was appropriate and one that was inappropriate for the subject's cognitive style.
Results. Comparison of RT, NOE, and subjective assessment of difficulty when using both types of interfaces for respondents from all four subgroups – men and women, Asians, and Europeans – revealed lower indices when working with appropriate interfaces compared to inappropriate ones. The NOE committed by Europeans when using the appropriate interface were greater compared to the NOE committed by Asians, while there were no differences between the representatives of both groups when using the inappropriate interface. The RT and subjective assessment of the difficulty of performing tasks between subjects of all subgroups did not differ for either appropriate or inappropriate interfaces.
Conclusions. Both groups demonstrate increased psychophysiological load when using interfaces that do not match their cultural cognitive style: the RT increases by 50–80 ms, and the NOE doubles. European participants experienced increased cognitive load when interacting with dense interfaces, while Asian participants experienced increased cognitive load when working with minimalist interfaces, which was consistent with the subjective perception of interface complexity.
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