Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cross-Cultural Web Usability Model

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Web Information Systems Engineering – WISE 2017 (WISE 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10570))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Research shows that different user interfaces are needed for successful communication with different cultural groups, yet studies on cross-cultural website usability are limited. This research works towards creating a culturally sensitive world wide web by addressing the gap with a novel cross-cultural website usability model. The authors’ prior work evaluated Australian, Chinese, and Saudi Arabian web pages and revealed significant differences in the use of web attributes including: layout, navigation, links, multimedia, visual representation, colour and text. This paper extends those findings by mapping the usage of web attributes with theories of culture to create website design guidelines and a usability measuring instrument. The development of this model includes: evaluation of element use, identification of prominent elements, organisation of cultural factors, organisation of HCI factors, development of design guidelines and development of the usability measuring instrument. This model simplifies the creation of cross-cultural websites, while enabling developers to evaluate page usability for different cultures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Bernstein, A., Reinecke, K.: Knowing what a user likes: a design science approach to interfaces that automatically adapt to culture. Manage. Inf. Syst. 37(2), 427–453 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hsieh, H.C.L.: Evaluating the effects of cultural preferences on website use. In: Rau, P.L.P. (ed.) CCD 2014. LNCS, vol. 8528, pp. 162–173. Springer, Cham (2014). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07308-8_16

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Reinecke, K., Bernstein, A.: Improving performance, perceived usability, and aesthetics with culturally adaptive user interfaces. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 18(2), 1–29 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Nisbett, R.E.: Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why. Free Press, New York (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Sun, H.: Expanding the scope of localization: a cultural usability perspective on mobile text messaging use in American and Chinese contexts (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  6. MEP. Ministry of environmental protection of the People’s Republic of China, 17 August 2017. http://www.mep.gov.cn/

  7. Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G.J., Minkov, M.: Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 3rd edn. McGraw-Hill Education, New York (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Hall, E.T., Hall, M.R.: Understanding Cultural Differences. Intercultural Press, London (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Heimgärtner, R.: Reflections on a model of culturally influenced human–computer interaction to cover cultural contexts in HCI design. Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 29, 205–219 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Hsieh, H.C., Holland, R., Young, M.: A theoretical model for cross-cultural web design. In: Kurosu, M. (ed.) HCD 2009. LNCS, vol. 5619, pp. 712–721. Springer, Heidelberg (2009). doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02806-9_83

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Fraternali, P., Tisi, M.: Identifying cultural markers for web application design targeted to a multi-cultural audience, pp. 231–239

    Google Scholar 

  12. Smith, A., Dunckley, L., French, T., Minocha, S., Chang, Y.: A process model for developing usable cross-cultural websites. Interact. Comput. 16(1), 63–91 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Barber, W., Badre, A.: Culturability: the merging of culture and usability

    Google Scholar 

  14. Mushtaha, A.: Towards designing localized websites, Department of Computer Science Vrije University Brussel, Belgium, Faculty of Science and Bio-Engineering Sciences (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Inglehart, R., Welzel, C.: Changing mass priorities: the link between modernization and democracy. Perspect. Polit. 8, 551–567 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Alexander, R., Thompson, N., Murray, D.: Towards cultural translation of websites: a large-scale study of Australian, Chinese, and Saudi Arabian design preferences. Behav. Inf. Technol. 36(4), 351–363 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. The-hofstede-centre. Country comparison, 1 August 2014. http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html

  18. Hall, E.T.: The Silent Language. Anchor Books, USA (1956)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Alexander, R., Thompson, N., Murray, D.: Cross-Cultural Web Design Guidelines

    Google Scholar 

  20. Galletta, D.F., Henry, R.M., McCoy, S., Polak, P.: When the wait isn’t so bad: the interacting effects of website delay, familiarity, and breadth. Inf. Syst. Res. 17(1), 20–37 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Cui, T., Wang, X., Teo, H.: Building a culturally-competent web site: a cross-cultural analysis of web site structure. J. Glob. Inf. Manage. (JGIM) 23(4), 1–25 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kralisch, A., Eisend, M., Berendt, B.: The impact of culture on website navigation behaviour

    Google Scholar 

  23. Marcus, A., Gould, E.W.: Crosscurrents: cultural dimensions and global web user-interface design. Interactions 7(4), 32–46 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Heimgärtner, R.: Cultural Differences in Human-Computer Interaction: Towards Culturally Adaptive Human-Machine Interaction. R Oldenbourg Verlag GmbH, Munich (2012)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  25. Al-Khalifa, H.S., Garcia, R.A.: Website design based on cultures: an investigation of saudis, filipinos, and indians government websites’ attributes. In: Marcus, A. (ed.) DUXU 2014. LNCS, vol. 8518, pp. 15–27. Springer, Cham (2014). doi:10.1007/978-3-319-07626-3_2

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Chapman, C.: Navigation patterns for ten common types of websites, 21 May 2015. https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/11/navigation-patterns-for-ten-common-types-of-websites/

  27. Gould, E.W., Zakaria, N., Yusof, S.A.M.: Applying culture to website design: a comparison of Malaysian and US websites, pp. 161–171

    Google Scholar 

  28. Rau, P.-L.P., Choong, Y.-Y., Gavriel, S.: A cross cultural study on knowledge representation and structure in human computer interfaces. Int. J. Ind. Ergon. 34, 117–129 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Liginlal, D., Rushdi, M., Meeds, R., Ahmad, R.: Localization for a High Context Culture: An Exploratory Study of Cultural Markers and Metaphors in Arabic E-Commerce Websites, E-Commerce, E-Business and E-Service. Taylor & Francis Group, London (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Dong, Y., Lee, K.P.: A cross-cultural comparative study of users’ perceptions of a webpage: with a focus on the cognitive styles of Chinese, Koreans and Americans. Int. J. Des. 2(2), 19–30 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Noiwan, J., Norcio, A.F.: Cultural differences on attention and perceived usability: investigating color combinations of animated graphics. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 64, 103–122 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Würtz, E.: Intercultural communication on web sites: a cross-cultural analysis of web sites from high-context cultures and low-context cultures. J. Comput.-Mediated Commun. 11(1), 274–299 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Kyriakoullis, L., Zaphiris, P.: Culture and HCI: a review of recent cultural studies in HCI and social networks. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 15(4), 629–642 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Nielsen, J.: Usability Engineering. Axademic Press, New York (1993)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  35. Lee, S., Koubek, R.J.: The impact of cognitive style on user preference based on usability and aesthetics for computer-based systems. Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 27(11), 1083–1114 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Information Technology, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

    Rukshan Alexander & David Murray

  2. School of Information Systems, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

    Nik Thompson

Authors
  1. Rukshan Alexander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Murray
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nik Thompson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rukshan Alexander .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, Darlington, NSW, Australia

    Athman Bouguettaya

  2. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Yunjun Gao

  3. Institute of Computing for Physics and Technology, Protvino, Russia

    Andrey Klimenko

  4. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Lu Chen

  5. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Xiangliang Zhang

  6. Institute of Computing for Physics and Technology, Protvino, Russia

    Fedor Dzerzhinskiy

  7. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Minhang Qu, China

    Weijia Jia

  8. Institute of Computing for Physics and Technology, Protvino, Russia

    Stanislav V. Klimenko

  9. City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Qing Li

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Alexander, R., Murray, D., Thompson, N. (2017). Cross-Cultural Web Usability Model. In: Bouguettaya, A., et al. Web Information Systems Engineering – WISE 2017. WISE 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10570. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68786-5_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68786-5_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68785-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68786-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation