Culturally Appropriate Web User Interface Design Study
A number of research studies support the importance of culturally appropriate design for e-business, e-commerce and advanced learning applications. This is not surprising, considering influence of user interface design on usability, accessibility and acceptability of software. To identify cultural preferences in visual interface design, the authors conducted research studying culture-specific web interface design elements for a large number of countries all over the globe. This chapter reports on study methodology and results, focusing mostly on the global colors study. The authors explain the approach and research methodology they utilized to conduct the automated “cultural audit” for identification of culture-relevant design and color preferences in web interface design. Research methodology for a manual “cultural audit” is also discussed. The authors present the overall findings of their study, and conclude with observations on the usefulness of their research approach, the applicability of cultural analysis tools the authors developed and future research in culturally appropriate user interfaces.
