Localization beyond national characteristics: the impact of language on users' performance with different menu structures

The consideration of cognitive differences between user groups in the field of human-computer interaction is still in its infancy. The present paper presents two explorative studies looking at the impact of the users' native language on their performance with different menu structures for mobile phones. Object- and verb-oriented menus with different levels of hierarchy were tested with users in Mexico and Germany. A follow-up study looked at the performance with verb- and object oriented menus by Arabic native speakers in Egypt. The results suggest that flat hierarchies are to be preferred independent from any cultural impact. While the first study did not yield a significant difference between Spanish and German native speakers using verb- and object-oriented menus, Arabic users performed significantly better with verb-oriented menus.