The Korean Grandma video showed a clear example of who the technologies are geared towards: younger generations with some proficiency in both interfacing technology and English. There is also a lack of instructions. As Korean Grandma complained at the end of the video, there is no human helper aiding anyone who may struggle with technology next to the machine. This shows that there is a huge assumption about the consumers: the companies assume that the person ordering fast food would be of a younger age who has experience with digital technology like laptops, TVs, or phones.
-
-
- The words “take out” and “French fries” were not directly translated to Korean — Korean Grandma mentioned that “take out” should be written as “포장,” which is a direct translation from the English word. However, on the screen that she was using, both “take out” and “French fries” are written as to how they would sound in English but only spelled with Korean letters.
-
- take out = 테이크 아웃
- French fries = 후렌치 후라이
-
- The words “take out” and “French fries” were not directly translated to Korean — Korean Grandma mentioned that “take out” should be written as “포장,” which is a direct translation from the English word. However, on the screen that she was using, both “take out” and “French fries” are written as to how they would sound in English but only spelled with Korean letters.
-
Furthermore, I realized that visual components, primarily pictures, play a critical role in expanding the audience for technology. This was clear when Korean Grandma tried to distinguish different food options from each other purely based on pictures presented, and even then the system failed her, and she ended up getting coffee instead of coke. Similarly, font size plays a huge role too. The reason why Korean Grandma opted to use pictures as references were not that she is not capable of reading. Rather, it was because the font size was too small for her to see, making the accessibility of the machine much lower to those with bad eyesight.
-
-
- The font size struggle was clear when Korean Grandma accidentally ordered coffee instead of coke. I believe that this is because “coffee” and “coke” in Korean start with the same letter (and they both have two syllables), making them hard to distinguish.
-
- coke = 콜라
- coffee = 커피
- notice how they both start with “ㅋ”
-
- The font size struggle was clear when Korean Grandma accidentally ordered coffee instead of coke. I believe that this is because “coffee” and “coke” in Korean start with the same letter (and they both have two syllables), making them hard to distinguish.
-
Lastly, it was intriguing to see that Korean Grandma made an instant connection between how the fast-food chain operated to how banks operated. Could this portray how every domain of our lives would be transformed to interface technology in the future? Will everything be unified into one method?