Accounting for user diversity in configuring online systems

In order to enhance, consolidate and differentiate online services, developers are increasingly becoming concerned with issues of usability. Lists of design guidelines and evaluations of existing systems are extensive but attempts to place this applied science on a rigorous footing have largely failed. Despite legitimate advances in HCI (Human‐computer Interaction), no clear set of principles has emerged that is relevant to practitioners or vendors of online systems. Most previous studies have been concerned with designing the system for a ‘standard’ user. This paper will present some early findings of our work concerned with discriminating the relative effects of the cultural values of users and their organisational setting in configuring online systems.