IMPACT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITIES ON WEBSITE DESIGN Mehak Sambyal Rayat&Bahra institute of engg. & Biotechnology, Mohali Jatinder Manhas University of Jammu, Jammu [email protected], [email protected]Abstract The web is one of the most revolutionary and global technique influencing every aspect of the people throughout the world including culture. The web has become the most intelligible technique throughout the world which enables distribution of services through its websites. The professionals and designers suggest that a well designed user interface is more influential and improves the performance of the website. In this paper, the authors have examined and found out the cultural influences on website design. Culture can be defined as a group of people having certain things in common which could affect the website design. The authors in this paper took different charity websites from North and South India and examined them by comparing the differences in the design with respect to culture. Authors examined these websites for 5 different parameters i.e. Information, Visual design, page layout, user input and multimedia. Findings suggest that north Indian and south Indian websites differ in terms of color, their logos and the style of menu they are using which are influenced by their local cultures. The authors found that difference in culture between the two different regions plays a vital role in website design. Keywords: Culture, Website Design, Website parameters, Visual Design. 1. Introduction There has been a significant increase in the internet users in India. In year 1998, the internet users in India were 14, 00,000 i.e.0.1% of the total population [1]. In year 2012, the internet users were 13, 70, 00,000 i.e.11.4% of the total population [1]. With these facts and figures, India has now become the world’s third largest Internet user after U.S and China [2]. Since the national language as well as local language in India is not English but still the reports suggest that there is still a large section of people using Internet. The web is connecting different regions of the country and there is a large section of non-English speaking people using Internet. In this paper, the authors have examined the differences in the design of websites from two different regions of Indian society. People from different cultures have different beliefs, values and the way they interact among themselves, these differences may be magnified in intercultural interactions[3].We have taken into account 11 different charity websites each from North India and South India which makes total of 22 websites. The aim of our study is to investigate the cultural differences in these websites. For this, we conducted an empirical study so as to establish our findings. 2. Cultural Differences: Culture gives people a sense of who they are, of belonging, of how they should behave, and of what they should be doing [4]. Anthropologist suggest that people from different cultures have different ways of thinking, feeling, reacting and constitute the different achievements of humans. The basic essentials of culture consist of traditional ideas and values [5]. This suggests that people from different cultures exhibit different behaviors. Mehak Sambyal et al, Int.J.Computer Technology & Applications,Vol 5 (2),334-337 IJCTA | March-April 2014 Available [email protected]334 ISSN:2229-6093
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IMPACT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITIES ON WEBSITE DESIGN
Mehak Sambyal
Rayat&Bahra institute of engg. & Biotechnology, Mohali