Localization of Web Design: An Investigation of Culturally Preferred Web Attributes in Taiwan and the UK

Abstract

Cultural diversity makes it unrealistic for designers to rely on intuition or personal experience to develop web interface design under the context of globalization, it is important to explore the cultural requirements and preferences of a target culture if a company wants to develop a website which can appropriately map that target culture. Although there is increased research related to culturally preferred design attributes, there are few studies that systematically examined such preferences across cultures. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate culturally preferred design characteristics in Taiwan and the UK, and the local website audits were conducted to identify the cultural preferences of each culture. Significant differences of culturally preferred design attributes were found across both cultures. Results from this study can contribute to help web developers and designers to develop the design for websites as culturally appropriate.