Cultural Impact on Web Design
By Joshua P. Larson
Editor’s Note: This article was written during my first semester at ISU. If I can recall, I was required to write an article regarding multicultural issues. Since I was a growing web design aficionado, I decided I’d try to tackle the issue of cultural issues reflected in web design. Enjoy!
When the Internet was still young, web designers made websites to suit their own local culture and audience. The design of the website was geared toward the designer’s own taste, as opposed to the consumer’s own interests. Due to modern globalization becoming a larger and more popular factor among businesses, cultural diversity now has a larger impact on electronic media, so much of an impact as that the old standard of web design cannot be accepted in today’s society. Due to the widespread use of technology and the Internet, contemporary web design has to supply all of the potential consumers the proper information to be able to sell the company’s product. This article will describe the challenges set forth for web designers to culturally relate to their audiences, and will give examples of research that designers must do before selling a company’s product internationally.
The recent explosion of popularity with the Internet medium has started a trend of technological globalization – globalizing business via the Internet. If a foreign consumer is interested in a company or a product, they will visit that company’s website. If the consumer fails to find the website user-friendly or oriented to their needs or culture, they may be less inclined to invest money into the company. Therefore, a culturally oriented website is vital for companies that are in the process of globalizing.
It was often accepted to implement into a company’s website a literal translator, or to have all of sites content replicated in a different language. The problem with the direct translation is that some words may mean others in a different language, and cultural conflicts may come into play if something is misrepresented to the foreign consumer when translated. It is not only the word choice in websites that is vital to globalization, either. Graphics and visuals are other key factors in orienting the company website to different audiences. For example, if an American web designer used a white background to try to sell products in a Japanese economy, they may be unsuccessful: while Americans view white as a color of purity, Japanese view white as a color of death. The same goes for the color red: while Chinese consumers may see red as a color of joy, Americans may see red as a color of danger (Chau et al. 139). To combat confusion, designers may want to use a culturally neutral color, or have the color of the website change dynamically with different audiences. Clearly, web designers must spend time researching the cultures of potential global consumers to effectively advertise and sell the company’s product over the Web.
The research of a culture may be fairly simple, but the process of implementing such interactivity with different cultures into a high-end website may be more of a task than it sounds. With personal experience as a web designer, I have knowledge of how difficult a culturally dynamic website could be to make, and incorporating differences into that website to fit all audiences would take a lot of knowledge and experience. A cultural anthropologist by the name of Geert Holfstede studied a group of employees to discover patterns in responses to different web designs. Holfstede created a set of categories relating to areas of web design that were culturally important (Marcus et al. 35). In an effort to make design more efficient, some designers have modeled their web design to culturally fit into his categories:
- PD (Power Distance)
- Collectivism vs. Individualism
- Masculinity vs. Femininity
- Uncertainty Avoidance
- Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation
- Polychronic vs. Monochronic Time Orientation
(Zahed et al. 93)
All of the categories refer to a quality of the specific culture. Power Distance refers to how much of a gap there is between the power of the individual and the power of the government or person of higher stature, requiring designers to use caution when, for example, suggesting that corporations or leaders are far more or less superior than the average consumer. Because Hofstede was able to create an PD index for each country, designers can more easily determine how they should construct the side according to PD (Zahed et al. 86). Collectivism and Individualism contrast whether or not the design should contain items that make the consumer feel on their own. Masculinity and Femininity suggest whether or not the design should display a strict feel as opposed to a laid-back feel. Uncertainty Avoidance is in regards to how much the designer and leave unexplained without causing major confusion. Long- and Short-Term Orientation refer to how web design should demonstrate how important time is a factor to the consumer, and Polychronic vs. Monochronic Time Orientation refers to the way designers should display a certain amount of tasks needed to be done in order to fit cultures that like to do different numbers of things at once (Zahed et al. 94).
It is imperative that professional web designers follow the guidelines to make sure their websites suite each necessary culture. Betty Collis did research involving online courses taught to people of different cultures. She explains how some web courses need to be modified in order to adapt to certain cultures, supporting the idea that some cultures learn differently than others (Collis, 202). Sharon Housely offers advice for designing online retail stores. She describes ways to culturally diversify an online retailer including categories of payment options, currency distinction, contact information, delivery options, order forms, payment policy, and spelling (Housely). With both online media design, cultural differences must be included to make the site effective.
Global are economics becoming more of a factor with successful business, and effective communication and advertising is crucial. The web designer of a company has to communicate effectively of an audience of different language and cultural customs. Designers are now expected to research to determine the best output for that culture’s consumer. Implementing such websites is becoming the norm, and through this standard, web designers are directly responsible for a company’s global success.
Works Cited
Chau, Patrick Y.K., et al.”Cultural Differences In The Online Behavior Of Consumers.” Communications Of The ACM Oct. 2002: 138-143. Google Scholar. ACM Portal. Iowa State U. Lib., Ames, IA. 17 Sept. 2007 <http://www.lib.iastate.edu>
Collis, Betty. “Designing for Differences: Cultural Issues In The Design Of WWW-Based Course- Support Sites.” British Journal Of Education July 1999: 210-215. Google Scholar. Blackwell-Synergy. Iowa State U. Lib., Ames, IA. 17 Sept. 2007 <http://www.lib.iastate.edu>
Housely, Sharon. “Website Globalization.” The UK Web Design Company. 19 Sept. 2007 <http://www.theukwebdesigncompany.com/articles/article.php?article=831>.
Marcus, Aaron, and Emilie W. Gould. “Crosscurrents: Cultural Dimensions And Global Web User- Interface Design.” Interactions July 2000: 32-46. Google Scholar. ACM Portal. Iowa State U. Lib., Ames, IA. 17 Sept. 2007 <http://www.lib.iastate.edu>.
Zahed, F., W.V. Van Pelt, and J. Song. “A Conceptual Framework For International Web Design.” IEEE Transactions On Professional Communication June 2001: 83-103. Google Scholar. IEEE Explorer. Iowa State U. Lib., Ames, IA. 17 Sept. 2007 <http://www.lib.iastate.edu>.