Incorporating the cultural dimensions into the theoretical framework of website information architecture

Abstract

Information Architecture (IA) has emerged as a discipline that is concerned with the development of systematic approaches to the presentation and organization of online information. The IA discipline has commanded significant attention from professional practitioners but lacks in the theoretical perspective. In our effort to formalize the knowledge of the discipline, we report on the extension of our initial work of formalizing the architectural framework for understanding website IA. Since the web is not a culturally neutral medium, we sought to delineate the cultural dimensions within our formed framework of website IA with the incorporation of the cultural dimensions of Hofstede and Hofstede's (2005), Hall's (1966), Hall and Hall's (1990) and Trompenaar's (1997). This attempt contributes towards the progress of putting a sense of cultural localization to the IA augmentation for local and international website design. In addition, to avoid theoretical aloofness and arbitrariness, practical design presumptions are also reflected. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.