Authors:
Gatis Vitols
1
and
Yukako Vitols-Hirata
2
Affiliations:
1
Latvia University of Agriculture, Latvia
;
2
Cognitee Inc., Japan
Keyword(s):
Cross-Cultural Development, Localization, Culture Dimensions Model, Usability.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Accessibility and Usability
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Guidelines, Principles, Patterns and Standards
;
Human Factors
;
Human-Computer Interaction
;
Interface Design
;
Physiological Computing Systems
Abstract:
In the cross-cultural website design literature, three strategies are often mentioned: globalization, internationalization and localization. Most cited are the localization and the internationalization. To develop localised websites for different cultures two models are widely applied. One is the culture marker model, and the other is the culture dimensions model. Marker model identify system elements (i.e. calendar, language, date formats) that require modifications. Since introduction of this model, authors have widely applied marker identification for cross-cultural system design. Culture dimensions model includes multiple subordinate models or cultural dimension models that have been derived from previously published cultural META models. With the culture models and dimensions included in these models, authors try to analyse and compare various cultures in order to acquire internal characteristics of target cultures. However culture dimensions model application in information and
communication technology field for system development is still questionable. There is a need to perform more research on application of this model for development of methods for more usable and accessible website design. The aim of this article is to perform literature review on impact of culture dimensions model on cross-cultural website development for further development of application methodologies. It can be concluded that analysis of the culture dimensions (particularly Hofstede model) facilitates the process of gathering culture preferences and identification of evaluation methods for target users and can be applied for cross-cultural website design. Culture dimensions affect website’s graphical information, design of navigation, design of text, creation of interaction elements, and design of input elements.
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