Culture and object classification: a window into the State of Kuwait.

Conference: Bournemouth University, School of Design, Engineering & Computing.

Abstract:

Culture has an influence on the way in which people perceive objects, and categorise them according to their relationship. Categorisation in our world is a means of organising objects, documents, materials or items into groups according to their connection. Different patterns of perception in the categorisation of objects have been revealed especially when comparing Eastern and Western cultures. A cultural aware approach toward object categorisation is important and requires the gathering and usage of appropriate sociocultural methods for classification.

This research investigates the effect of cultural influence on object classification.

Its main aims were to investigate the perception of Kuwaiti users with regard to object categories and to develop a structure for a better usability experience.

The classification structure currently used by the Central Library of Kuwait was selected as a starting point. Surveys were conducted on Kuwaitis to identify their perception on the structure currently used by the library. A new structure based on Kuwaitis’ perception was developed and evaluated. The structure usability was then tested on local people using an online prototype website for uploading and retrieving information. This research proposes an experimental method to analyse the influence of culture on object categorisation which revealed positive effects on the proposed categorisation structure.

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Ali Alquraini