Incorporating culture in website design: A comparison of taiwanese and australian website characteristics

Abstract

This paper explores issues related to user interface design and experience, including culturally preferred design elements. A local website audit was conducted to compare and analyze websites in Taiwan and Australia. The web design attributes for effective communication (usability) that are considered include: Visual representation, navigation, links, layout and multimedia. Significant differences in culturally preferred design characteristics were found in each of the web design categories. Results from this study can contribute to help web developers and designers develop website designs that are culturally appropriate. Based on the methodology structure in this research, this investigation is the first phase in identifying cultural preferences of two cultures, and future research will evaluate the web experiment design to test if the cultural preferences are incorporated in the web, and to determine if such an approach can improve usability. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.