Title :
Applying culture to Web site design: a comparison of Malaysian and US Web sites
Author :
Gould, Emilie W. ; Zalcaria, N. ; Yusof, Shafiz Mendi Mohd
Author_Institution :
Rensselaer Polytech. Inst., Troy, NY, USA
Abstract :
Cultural localization should become a necessary adjunct to technology transfer and global business communication. A recent Siemens study (1999) of mobile phone use in Germany and China highlighted the value of cultural models and culturally localized support information. We similarly compare cultural orientations and design preferences for Web sites in Malaysia and the United States. We review the cross-cultural theories of Hofstede (1980, 1988, 1997) and Trompenaars (1994, 1998), identify design elements associated with three cultural dimensions from those theories, and suggest guidelines for cultural localization in both countries. Although we focus on Malaysia and the United States, our comparison and analysis procedure can be adapted for other countries
Keywords :
business communication; information resources; social aspects of automation; technology transfer; user interfaces; Malaysian Web sites; US Web sites; Web site design; cross-cultural theories; cultural localization; global business communication; technology transfer; Business communication; Cultural differences; Displays; Global communication; Guidelines; Information management; Mobile handsets; Technology management; Technology transfer; Web page design;
Conference_Titel :
Professional Communication Conference, 2000. Proceedings of 2000 Joint IEEE International and 18th Annual Conference on Computer Documentation (IPCC/SIGDOC 2000)
Conference_Location :
Cambridge, MA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6431-7
DOI :
10.1109/IPCC.2000.887273