cross-cultural online design

This page looks at cross-cultural issues - within and across national borders - and concerns regarding colours and language.

It covers -

• introductions
• colours and symbols
• language
• navigation

     introductions

For a lucid introduction to some online cross-cultural issues see the Culturability: The Merging of Culture and Usability paper by Wendy Barber & Albert Badre, The Cultural Context of Web Genres: Content vs. Style (PDF) by Badre & Sharon Laskowski and his 2000 The Effects of Cross Cultural Interface Design Orientation on World Wide Web User Performance (PDF) or 'From Computer-Mediated Colonization to Culturally Aware ICT Usage and Design' by Charles Ess in Advances in Universal Web Design & Evaluation: Research, Trends & Opportunities (Hershey: IDEA Group 2007) edited by Sri Kurniawan & Panayiotis Zaphiris.

Other studies of 'markers' include the 1997 paper The Effects of Cultural Markers on Web Site Use by Charles Sheppard & Jean Scholtz, the 1999 paper Cultural Dimensions & Global Web User-Interface Design: What? So What? Now What? by Aaron Marcus. The latter was responsible for the paper on 'International & Intercultural User-Interface Design' in User Interfaces for All (New York: Erlbaum 2000) edited by Constantine Stephanidis, drawing on Geert Hofstede's theorising about cultural differences in organisations.

There is a more detailed discussion in Designing User Interfaces for International Use (Amsterdam: Elsevier 1990) edited by Jakob Nielsen and his International User Interfaces (New York: Wiley 1996), co-edited with Elise Del Galdo. Global Interface Design: A Guide to Designing International User Interfaces (Boston: AP Professional 1995) by Tony Fernandes is also of interest.

The Culturable Usability project in Helsinki and works such as Norio Kambayashi's Cultural Influences on IT Use: A UK-Japanese Comparison (New York: Palgrave 2002) are of broader interest. Much of the literature is self-involved. An example and point of entry is the 2004 Cross-National Differences in Website Appeal: A Framework for Assessment paper by Brian Blake & Kimberly Neuendorf.

David Victor's International Business Communication (New York: HarperCollins 1992) offers a range of insights.

Other pointers are provided by works identified in Communicating across Cultures in Cyberspace: A Bibliographical Review of Online Intercultural Communication (Hamburg: Lit-Verlag 2004) by Leah Macfadyen, Jörg Roche & Sabine Doff.

     colours and symbols

Among studies concerned with cross-cultural communication - colours and symbols - we recommend Global Graphics: Color (Gloucester: Rockport 2000) by Cheryl Cullen and Global Graphics: Symbols (Gloucester: Rockport 2000) by Jared Brown & Anistatia Miller.

DoubleClick comments that

Colors effect the eye differently. Using bright colors can help attract a user's eye, contributing to higher response rates. Research has shown that blue, green and yellow work best, while white, red, and black are less effective.

Mitchell Harper claims that the five 'most used' colour combinations on the web are

-   red, yellow and white
-   blue and white
-   red, gray and white
-   blue, orange and white
-   yellow, gray and white

If you are aiming at global audiences it is worth remembering that colours have significant associations. White in many Asian cultures is associated with death, in contrast to the black in many European cultures. Green and saffron yellow have particular associations in Islam and among Buddhist demographics.

In Australia, the UK, Canada and US colours have multiple connotations, eg -

• orange - harvest, autumn, creativity, cheap products
• purple - luxury, royalty, ecclesiastical, mourning
• red - power, energy, danger
• blue - solidity, conservatism, competence
• green - environmentalism, spring, safety
• yellow - hope, hazard, cowardice, happiness
• pink - vibrancy, energy, radicalism, cheapness

Elsewhere on this site we have highlighted questions about the 'digital default' and various digital divides. Much of the literature about colour on the web assumes that all users (or merely those that matter) are young and visually unimpaired. Research on aging suggests restraint in use of blue, green and violet to provide information, as yellowing of the cornea can cause confusion between some shades of those colours.

Some writers suggest that display of red text on a green background (or green on red) should be avoided, given problems experienced by people with colour impairment).

Others note that in practice those colours can be used, provided saturation levels are sufficiently different to allow differentiation.

     language

Works cited above discuss some of the challenges in translation and cross-cultural writing.

We have highlighted particular problems in considering domain naming as an aspect of marketing, online and offline.

     navigation

Design principles regarding website navigation (eg assisting users to readily identify where they are, where they have been and where they might go) have a cross-cultural application.

It is worth noting, however, that there are differences in how people from different cultures read a 'page'.

Many read from left to right, top to bottom.  Some read from right to left. Some read from bottom to top. 



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