A Cross-Cultural Design Study of a Railway App for Bangladeshi International Students in China

Rahman Md Ataur, Wang Xiaoxia

Cross-cultural design, Bangladeshi international students, 12306 app, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, AI agent, user experience.

With the deepening of the Belt and Road Initiative, cultural exchange between China and Bangladesh has intensified, and the number of Bangladeshi students in China continues to grow. China's high-speed rail network is the primary mode of transport for these students, yet the official ticketing platform, the 12306 app, exhibits clear shortcomings in cross-cultural usability. This study takes Bangladeshi international students as its research subject and, through in-depth interviews, literature review, and competitive analysis, systematically identifies five major pain points these users encounter with 12306: cumbersome registration and passport verification, incomplete English translation, restricted payment options, difficulty navigating stations, and excessive interface information density. Interviewees consistently reported that language barriers and uncertainty surrounding identity verification generated persistent use-related anxiety. Building on these findings, the study applies Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory to trace the cultural roots of these pain points across six dimensions and derives five design principles: step-by-step guidance, instant feedback, transparent trust, explicit expression, and multilingual support. An HTML interactive prototype comprising seven core screens was developed, alongside a conversational agent, "Railway Assistant," built on the Coze platform to deliver step-by-step guidance and Bengali greetings. Evaluation via 31 questionnaires showed that 93.5% of respondents endorsed the step-by-step registration flow, and the passport-login entry point and multilingual switching received highly positive ratings; unexpectedly, more than 70% of respondents regarded the AI assistant as a core requirement. This research systematically introduces Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory into railway app design, establishes a mapping framework linking cultural dimensions, user pain points, and design elements, and validates the effectiveness of the resulting cross-cultural design principles through the Coze-based agent.

Received: 13 Jul 2026, Received in revised form: 10 Aug 2026, Accepted: 15 Aug 2026, Available online: 19 Aug 2026

10.22161/ijaers.138.5