Abstract
As user-centered design has become the norm of interface design, how to make users feel fully respected is considered as crucial for users' perception of the product. Some researchers suggest offering an apologetic statement with error message for users, but the literature tells us that the meaning and the perception of apologies are subject to cultural interpretations. To test the legitimacy of the claim that computers' offering apologetic statements to the users can make better user-centered design, a questionnaire and a word-guessing game that offers apologetic statements for incorrect guesses were designed and administered on subjects from two very different cultures, namely, Taiwan and Turkey.