Website Elements Research Articles

“Equality, freedom, solidarity – the issues on which I was raised”

As part of this special issue, we received this reflective piece from Viena Chilena 73 | 23, a project initiated to record and articulate the history and memory of Chilean exile in Austria and Austrian-Chilean solidarity during the 50 years since the 1973 military coup in Chile. This contribution pieces together elements of the project website, extracts of their archival work and reflections from the project collective.

Users’ reactions to website designs: A neuroimaging study based on evolutionary psychology with a focus on color and button shape

Website design decisions consider visual stimuli that have a significant impact on user behavior. We use evolutionary psychology as a theoretical lens for studying the effects of color and shapes on e-commerce websites. Referring to their evolutionary meaning, we derive hypotheses that are tested in a neuroimaging experiment utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The self-report results reveal significantly more pleasure, arousal, less distrust, and positive attitude toward colored versus uncolored websites. Neural results reveal a deactivation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) when comparing colored versus uncolored websites. Further, a significant deactivation in the left medial PFC areas and the left dlPFC is identified for the blue website. These results signify a cognitive relief for the use of color on websites in general, and for the use of blue in particular. For button shape, significant increases in the dorsomedial PFC, as well as in the right medial PFC areas, were identified for rounded shapes. These results signify users’ preference toward interaction with rounded rather than sharp button shapes on websites. Altogether, the present study shows that neural mechanisms indicate how the meaning of website elements is still derived from their evolutionary meaning, and that users are not necessarily aware of this.

Diversity elements on maternal-fetal medicine fellowship websites: opportunity for improvement in recruitment and representation

There has been a fundamental shift in recruitment of medical students and trainees into residency and fellowship programs during the Covid 19 pandemic.1 Historically, websites for medical trainees demonstrate a lack of explicit focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 2-7 Diversity has positive associations of improving healthcare team performance, patient care, and even financial goals.8 A lack of diversity may negatively impact patient care.9 Directed recruitment of underrepresented in medicine applicants has proven successful to increase diversity within training programs. Department websites have a more prominent role in virtual recruitment since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Features on these websites may be utilized to attract underrepresented in medicine applicants and increase diversity in a field. To analyze Maternal Fetal Medicine fellowship websites for presence of diversity elements important to those people who are underrepresented in medicine. Fellowship websites were accessed summer of 2021. They were analyzed for presence of twelve website elements that demonstrate commitment to diversity, including: 1) nondiscrimination statement; 2) diversity and inclusion message; 3) diversity specific language; 4) resources for trainees; 5) community demographics; 6-7) personalized biographies of faculty or fellows; 8-9) individual photographs of faculty or fellows; 10) photos or biographies of alumni; 11) diversity publications and; 12) department statistics. Program size, region, and location were collected. Self-reported underrepresented in medicine data on residency programs was extracted from the National Graduate Medical Education Survey from 2019. Programs were dichotomized into 6+ diversity elements. Nonparametric, chi-square and Fisher's exact were used for analysis. Fellowship programs were analyzed (excluding military/fetal surgery, n = 91/94). Websites included a mean of 4.1± 2.5 diversity elements. Most featured fewer than 6 elements (n =75, 82.4%). When dichotomized to 6+ diversity elements, larger faculty size was the only significant factor (p=0.01). The majority of programs had fewer than 12 faculty members (n=54, 59.3%) and only 9.3% of those programs had 6 or more diversity elements. By contrast, among programs with more than 12 faculty, 29.7% had 6 or more diversity elements. Faculty photos, fellow photos, and diversity publications were the most commonly featured items (92.4%, 68.1%, and 49.5%, respectively). Mean rate of underrepresented in medicine was 18.8% ± 11.3% and no significant associations were noted. There was a non-significant difference in diversity elements in the West United States with a mean of 5.3±2.2 diversity elements, compared to 3.7±2 in the South. Fellowship websites convey information for trainees, especially in an era of virtual recruitment. This study highlights opportunities for directed improvements of websites for features which URIM medical trainees have identified as important.

User experience and information architecture of the National Digital Library and archives of Iran: a usability investigation and card sorting

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the usability and information architecture of the digital library (DL) website of the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI).Design/methodology/approachThis applied study used an exploratory mixed method, card sorting. Data were collected by interviewing, observation, usability test and card sorting. By interviewing users about problems of the DL, eight tasks were predefined and users’ problems in the path were identified. Their satisfaction of the tasks and the usability rates were measured via a questionnaire. Card sorting was done to inform on the information organization of the website elements. The study population included all users of the DL of the NLAI in two groups: ten initiator users (public users) and ten expert users (librarians). SPSS was used for analysing the usability test quantitative data. MaxQda was applied for analysing interview-driven qualitative data. Qualitative content analysis, categorization (data organization and grouping) and determining main and secondary codes were applied as well. The sort optimal application was used for analysing card sorting data in the form of similarity matrix and dendrogram. For validating qualitative findings, triangulation was used. The internal reliability of the used questionnaire amounted to a = 0.87FindingsRegarding the assigned tasks, new initiator users by consuming 367.67 s for registering and new expert users by consuming 403 s spent the most time. Task 2 ranked first in being incomplete among 40% of initiator users and Task 3 ranked first by 30% of incompleteness. Expert users had more unsuccessful attempts. Task 5 with the mean rate of 3.35 and Task 8 with the mean rate of 2.25 were the most difficult and the easiest tasks, respectively. Some usability components were rated lower than the moderate point. Only 30% of initiator users and 10% of expert users were satisfied with the website. A total of 12 categories and 452 codes were identified as main problems of the DL. The problems related to a vague perception of concepts and labels with 90 repetitions and digital source display with six repetitions ranked as the first and the last problems in working with the DL, respectively. The sort optimal package produced the card sorting results as a matrix similarity and a dendrogram. Card sorting reflected some changes in organizing information items. Interviews after card sorting emerged some new groups to be included, such as links to other digital libraries, shared databases in the organization and frequently asked questions.Originality/valueThe library’s website should be designed in a manner so that it can satisfy users with different traits. As the information technologies are increasingly developing, the importance of such a design increases for better service provision and effective competition.

ANALYSIS OF THE USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF WEBSITES IN VIEW OF THEIR UNIVERSAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Universal design is a strategic approach for planning and designing both the products and their environment, aimed at making a given product available to the widest number of possible users. It ensures equality for all of them and the opportunity to participate in the society. This concept is also crucial in the process of designing and developing software. The research was conducted with the use of four services, three of them were implemented for the purpose of this study. Two of them took into consideration the principles of universal design, while the others did not. The aim of the study was verification of the level of usability and accessibility of services by means of three independent methods: the LUT (Lublin University of Technology) checklist, an assessment taking into account WCAG 2.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards using the automatic WAVE evaluation tool (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) and a device allowing to track the movement of the eye while performing various tasks on websites. The websites were assessed by twenty experts in the field of creating web application interfaces, using the LUT checklist. The time to the first fixation (TTFF) that it took respondents to look at specific website elements was measured using the eye tracker device and iMotions software. All websites were checked by means of the WAVE tool to detect irregularities and non-compliance with universal design standards. The analysis performed clearly indicated that websites that follow the universal design guidelines were more useful, intuitive and accessible for users. It might be concluded that interfaces allow to find necessary information and perform desired actions in a shorter time when prepared in accordance with the principles of universal design.

14. Characterizing Diversity Features in Plastic Surgery Residency Program Websites

Background: There continues to be an increased commitment in recruiting residency and faculty applicants from backgrounds that are underrepresented in medicine (URMs). These applicants have been shown to be more likely to attend programs where they perceive higher diversity. Because applicants rely most heavily on websites for program information, general surgery literature has identified 8 website elements used by programs to demonstrate diversity and inclusion. No study has examined how plastic surgery residency programs feature diversity and inclusion on their websites. This study aims to characterize how these programs’ websites demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion, and assess whether trends vary by geographic region or rank. Methods: All 82 accredited integrated plastic surgery residencies were reviewed. Website diversity elements were defined by prior general surgery literature and initial review of 10 plastic surgery websites. These elements included 1) non-discrimination statement, 2) diversity and inclusion message, 3) community demographics, 4) biographies of faculty and 5) residents, 6) photographs of faculty and 7) residents, 8) list of resources for trainees, 9) gender identity or pronouns of faculty and 10) residents, and 11) scholarships for underrepresented visiting medical students. We evaluated the impact of Doximity rank and geographic location per U.S. Census Bureau definitions on the diversity elements. Results: Websites had a mean of 3.75 1.71 elements. Most programs had 0 - 4 elements (n = 54, 67.5%), some had 5 - 8 elements (n = 26.5, 32.5%), and none had greater than nine. Chi-squared test revealed no association with either rank (p = 0.40) or U.S. region (p = 0.458). The most common elements were resident photos (n = 73, 91.3%), pictures of faculty (n = 63, 78.8%), and extended faculty bios (n = 50, 62.5%). The least commonly included elements were gender identity or pronouns of residents (n = 0) and faculty (n = 3, 3.8%). Conclusion: Most plastic surgery websites include very few elements related to diversity and inclusion. This research highlights opportunities through which plastic surgery residency program websites can further demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Toward a luxury restaurant renewal: Antecedents and consequences of digitalized gastronomy experiences

Like many other activities, luxury gastronomy has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To maintain a certain level of turnover, luxury restaurants had to innovate by digitalizing their offer, that is, delivering a customer journey that encompasses digital and physical consumer experiences. Based on the two approaches to customer experience (dimension- and stage-oriented), the aim of this research is to propose and test a model of the digitalized gastronomy experience that includes its antecedents and consequences. A qualitative study (Study 1), involving 15 restaurant chefs and experts, defines the digitalized gastronomy experience and identifies the dimensions and customer journey stages associated with that experience. A quantitative study (Study 2) of 217 French consumers of luxury gastronomy validates the proposed conceptualization, its antecedents (website elements and psychological variables), and its consequences (purchase intentions). We also confirm the role of involvement in gastronomy as a contingent variable.

Developing and validating a multidisciplinary scale of E-retailing website elements

The purpose of this article is to theoretically identify the salient elements of e-retailing websites and empirically verify them through a rigorous scale development process. A mixed method approach was followed to achieve these objectives: a qualitative (content analysis) and a quantitative approach (factorial and confirmatory surveys). Three findings emerge from the current study. First: this study provides sound empirical support for e-retailing website elements as a high-order construct that consists of eight first-order factors. Second, the current research suggests that the measurement instrument for e-retailing website elements, which contains 54 items, is a valid and reliable using the following factors: hedonic website design elements, technical website design elements, website experiential elements, website relational elements, product-related elements, order-related elements, security-related elements and social media presence. Third, the proposed measurement instrument of e-retailing website elements strongly predicts e-satisfaction and e-trust. The key contribution of this study stems from developing and validating a multidisciplinary scale that synthesizes and integrates the major perspectives of e-retailing website elements.

Diversity Elements on Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship Websites: Opportunity for Improvement in Recruitment and Representation

To analyze Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) fellowship websites for presence of diversity elements important to underrepresented minorities in medicine (URIM).[1] [1] Underrepresented in medicine definition. AAMC. https://www.aamc.org/what-we-do/equity-diversity-inclusion/underrepresented-in-medicine. Accessed August 1, 2021. Fellowship websites (Society for MFM) were accessed summer of 2021. We identified 12 website elements that demonstrate commitment to diversity: 1) nondiscrimination statement; 2) diversity and inclusion message; 3) diversity specific language; 4) resources for trainees; 5) community demographics; 6-7) personalized biographies of faculty or fellows; 8-9) individual photographs of faculty or fellows; 10) photos or biographies of alumni; 11) diversity publications and; 12) department statistics. Program size, region, and location were collected. Self-reported URIM data on obstetrics programs was extracted from the National GME Survey 2019. Programs were dichotomized into 6+ diversity elements. Nonparametric, chi-square and Fisher’s exact were used. MFM fellowship programs (excluded military/fetal surgery) were analyzed (n = 91/94). Websites included a mean of 4.1± 2.5 diversity elements. Most (n =75, 82.4%) featured < 6 elements. When dichotomized to 6+ diversity elements, larger faculty size was the only significant factor (p=0.01). The majority had < 12 faculty listed (n=54, 59.3%). For programs with 12+ faculty, 68.8% (n=11/16) demonstrated 6+ diversity elements. Faculty photos, fellow photos, and diversity publications were the most common (92.4%, 68.1%, 49.5% respectively). Mean rate of URIM was 18.8% ± 11.3 and no significant associations were noted. There was a trend for more diversity elements in the Western United States, with a mean of 5.3 ± 2.2, compared to 3.7 ± 2.0 in the South (p=0.24, see Figure). Fellowship websites convey information for trainees, especially in an era of virtual recruitment. This study highlights opportunities for directed improvements to increase recruitment of URIM.

PATIENT PERSPECTIVE ON HEALTHCARE FACILITIES WEBSITES COMMUNICATION ELEMENTS

Background. The evolving digital society stresses the importance of online health communication. The majority of studies observe digital communication from expert and legal but not patient perspectives.&#x0D; Purpose. To explore information and consumer preferences of the Russian Federation population on healthcare facilities websites.&#x0D; Materials and methods. The study involved 1319 respondents of the internet-based survey. Using a 5-point Likert-like scale, participants were asked to measure the importance of healthcare facilities website elements from 1 (“not important”) to 5 (“very important”).&#x0D; The analysis included the estimation of proportions of those who rated elements as important or somewhat important and following principal component analysis with varimax rotations. All analyses were carried out using IBM SPSS Statistics, version 26.&#x0D; Results. The greatest proportions of participants who reported the importance were observed in contact information (77.8%; 95% CI: 75.5–80.0%), testimonials (65.8%; 95% CI: 63.2–68.3%), information about staff (65.0%; 95% CI: 62.4–67.6%), website loading speed (64.6%; 95% CI: 62.0–67.1%), and its responsiveness (63.0%; 95% CI: 60.4–65.6%). Six factors were extracted, accounting for 43.3% of the total variance: (1) “general interest in information about a healthcare facility,” (2) “online services-seeking,” (3) “health publications-seeking,” (4) “visual appeal perception,” (5) “social vulnerability or health limitations,” and (6) “interest in healthcare facility public (non-medical) activity”.&#x0D; Conclusion. Healthcare facilities websites should provide information and functions not only based on existing legal acts requirements but based on patients’ preferences and needs.

It is worth a visit! Website quality and visitors’ intentions in the context of corporate museums: a multimethod approach

ABSTRACT Over the last years, the use of technology has become a crucial part of a visitor’s experience in a cultural context. This proved to be even more important in the last months when the Covid-19 pandemic crisis spurred museums and other cultural institutions to use digital tools to deliver their services online. In this changing scenario, digital technologies appear as powerful tools also for corporate museums, held and run by private companies as precious vehicles to share organizational past, values and identity with different stakeholders. The present study is aimed at identifying the website elements that affect users’ intentions in the unexplored context of corporate museums. To this aim, an innovative multimethod approach was used. Drawing on sample data from 736 users of four different Italian corporate museums’ websites and combining Fuzzy-set. Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), the current investigation shows that the intention to visit a corporate museum depends on elements that are related to both the digital environment and the social context.

Thematic website: Development methods, structure and essential services

The author discussed the technology of building the library’s website devoted to local heritage based on practical experience. The essential features and relevant presentation formats (longread, storytelling) are described. The detailed set of structural elements and key services to be introduced to the webmaster as a requirements specification are formulated. Specific Internetmarketing instruments promote the web content. Based on the proposed technology, libraries will be able to draw up relevant requirements specifications for any type of cultural institution (e. g. library, museum, etc.), to include every service or element of external and internal system design essential for the institution’s mission. The requirements to website coding and content (information relevance and verification, multimediality, new forms of text presentation) are included. The tabulated services and structural elements of thematic websites will enable to formulate requirements to webmaster intelligently.

Wykorzystanie danych z serwisów społecznościowych LibraryThing, Goodreads i Anobii w badaniach naukowych w latach 2006-2019

Teza – Narzędzia teleinformatyczne umożliwiły powstanie takich charakterystycznych miejsc współdzielenia doświadczeń lekturowych w sieci, jakimi są serwisy społecznościowe dla czytelników. Witryny tego typu służą integracji i wymianie informacji o książkach, ale stają się również ważnym źródłem danych o współczesnych praktykach i zachowaniach czytelniczych. Cel – Celem przeprowadzonego badania było określenie stopnia zainteresowania serwisami społecznościowymi dla czytelników w środowiskach naukowych oraz wskazanie, jakie ich elementy są najczęściej wykorzystywane jako materiał źródłowy. Metody badawcze – Na potrzeby badania została opracowana bazazawierająca artykuły z Web of Science oraz Scopus (opublikowane w latach 2007-2019), w których występowały serwisy: LibraryThing, Goodreads i Anobii. Zgromadzone danezostały przebadane w wykorzystaniem elementów analizy bibliometrycznej. Wyniki/wnioski – Wyniki badania wykazały wzrost liczby opracowań, których autorzy podejmowali problematykę portali czytelniczych lub korzystali z ich zasobów do badań. Najwięcej tego typu prac ukazało się w czasopismach z zakresu informatyki oraz informacji naukowej i bibliotekoznawstwa. W odniesieniu do tematyki poszczególnych artykułów dostrzeżono zmniejszające się zainteresowanie problematyką folksonomii i dynamicznie rosnącą liczbę opracowań dotyczących systemów rekomendacji. Materiałem źródłowym wykorzystywanym w badaniach często były tagi i recenzje, ale brano również pod uwagę inne elementy serwisów (dane o użytkownikach i ich wypowiedzi, półki z książkami, oceny tytułów itp.). Do ekstrakcji danych ogólnie częściej był wykorzystywany serwis LibraryThing, chociaż Goodreads miał trzy razy więcej wskazań w artykułach z ostatniego przeanalizowanego roku.

Beyond “Meat Free Monday”: A mixed method study of giving up eating meat

Increasing numbers of people are vegan, vegetarian, or reducing meat consumption. There has also been growth in campaigns such as Meat Free Monday (MFM) that encourage and support reduced meat consumption. We conducted a mixed-method exploration of the behaviour and beliefs associated with reducing or eliminating meat consumption. An online questionnaire was completed by an opportunistic sample of 655 people aged 18–82 who were registered on the MFM website, and were meat eaters at the time of registering. The key focus of quantitative analyses was comparisons between three groups: those who described themselves as “omnivores” who ate all meat at the time of completing the survey, those who ate only some meat, and those who had stopped eating meat since registering for MFM. The qualitative component entailed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of in-depth interviews with 18 people who had completed the questionnaire. The quantitative data revealed that people who had stopped eating meat since engaging with the MFM campaign had more positive attitudes toward being vegetarian or vegan, had been engaged with MFM for a longer time, and had used more elements of the MFM website. The qualitative data illustrated that individuals understood and appreciated MFM's aim of supporting people to make an initial change and then considering expanding on this. Interviewees highlighted the value and importance of campaign materials that helped them to turn their beliefs and motivation into enduring behaviour change. The observed associations between longer engagement with the campaign and greater behaviour change suggest that MFM and similar campaigns will maximise their impact if they can maintain people's active engagement: that this will necessitate deeper understanding of the forms of support and advice are most wanted and most effective.

Beauty matters: reducing bounce rate by aesthetics of experience product portal page

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of experience product portal page aesthetics on bounce rate.Design/methodology/approachThis research collected data from an online shop selling original design furniture on Taobao.com. It employed deep learning algorithm and manual coding to operationalize image and text aesthetics.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that text aesthetics has a U-shaped relationship with bounce rate, whereas the relationship between image aesthetics and bounce rate is insignificant. Moreover, the U-shaped relationship between text aesthetics and bounce rate is weakened by image aesthetics.Originality/valueThis study addresses an important but understudied topic – the bounce rate of experience products in the context of e-commerce. Although the high bounce rate has increasingly gained attention from practitioners, there remains a scarcity of research that addresses the effect of product portal page aesthetics in the specific context of experience products. The authors theorize product portal page aesthetics as the design elements of an e-commerce website and deeply analyzed the role of product portal page aesthetics by classifying it into text aesthetics and image aesthetics. The authors’ findings provide implications for online sellers and platforms to effectively design product profile pages to reduce the bounce rate.

E-Commerce Design by Older Adults: The Selection and Placement of Web Objects on Shopping Sites

This study offers insights, gathered from co-design activities with older adults, on the design of e-commerce websites. Twenty older adults (aged 52–75 years) took part in a paper-based design activity in which they were presented with a web browser window, cutouts of a selection of web objects (e.g., product images and “add to cart” buttons) in a range of designs, and office stationery for making annotations and asked to select and place web objects onto the browser window to express their design ideas for two types of shopping experience: purchasing a grocery item that is inexpensive and typically purchased in multiples (carrots) and purchasing an assistive technology item which is considered expensive and normally purchased as a one-off (wheelchair). Objects selected frequently by the older adults for inclusion in both types of e-commerce websites included product images, price, and an “add to cart” button. Some objects were selected for inclusion depending on the type of website—quantity selection was selected for the cheap, multiple purchase item, whereas descriptions, reviews, and shipping/return information were deemed important only for the expensive, single-item purchase. Regarding the relative placement of the “add to cart” button, participants most often placed the button close to the quantity selection and/or the price. Furthermore, participants expressed that having these three elements presented within a visually distinctive “buy box” would be beneficial. This study offers insight into which website elements are deemed important by this older adult participant group for e-commerce websites and how the elements should be arranged, and the results also indicate that some design requirements may differ between different types of shopping experience. The findings can potentially benefit designers, developers, and industries to more fully grasp the potential of usable online shopping applications.

An overview on using google analytics to improve the course website of a database course

As the popularity of online learning has risen over the past decade, so has the usage of learning analytics. Instructors must develop innovative methods to improve student learning online and analyze students' interactions with their digital educational environment as online education continues to expand. This article describes how Google Analytics was used as learning analytics software on a database course website. The study's goal was to figure out which elements of the course website were the most successful in enhancing student learning. Throughout a semester, Google Analytics was utilized to track student activity on the course website in order to better understand how students interacted with it. Patterns and trends in student engagement were discovered by analyzing the gathered data. The discovered patterns were then linked with different internet page characteristics such as the degree of interaction and page content type. The most significant element for boosting student engagement with course material was the interactivity of a course website, according to the findings. In-page quizzes, in particular, were found to be very successful in increasing student engagement with the site. This pilot research demonstrated how Google Analytics might be a useful tool for monitoring and improving online student learning.

Online Openness and Transparency of Local Budgets in Belarus

AbstractWorld experience shows that public participation in the budget process and openness in the public sector are the necessary conditions for a proper economic strategy of the State. Financial openness contributes to the efficient collection and distribution of public resources. It expands the responsibility of governments, strengthens the trust of citizens and prevents opportunities for corruption. Researchers around the world (Alt, Lassen, Skilling, Bernick, Gandía, Yannacopoulos, Darbyshire, Slukhai and others) and international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, OECD, the World Bank, the International Budget Partnership (IBP), the Global Initiative for Financial Transparency and the Open Government Partnership have shown growing interest in financial openness issues in recent years. This paper attempts to develop and test a methodology for the operational analysis of online information openness and transparency of the budget process at the local level. The developed methodology used two criteria: (1) the level of transparency of the local budget and (2) an assessment of authority's efforts in ensuring transparency of local budgets. It is based on expert assessments of the informational significance of particular elements of websites of local authorities in issues of local finance and budget. We interpret the resulting assessment of the information content of the site with the local budget and finances data as the online openness and transparency of local budgets Online Local Budget Index of Transparency (OLBIT).

DIRECTIONS OF DEVELOPMENT OF BRICS HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS: SELF-UNDERSTANDING AND SELF-PRESENTATION OF CHINESE AND RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES

In the modern world, universities have become actors in the global market of higher education while retaining their connections with national higher education systems and staying embedded in their national culture and traditions. In this light, self-narratives of BRICS universities are of particular interest as they not only reflect these HEIs' understanding of their purpose and role in the national and international contexts but also the self-understandings of their national higher education systems. This study analyzes texts and visual elements of web-sites of Russian and Chinese universities as a part of their self-narratives and as means they use for communication with internal and external audiences. The study relies on the methodology of critical discourse analysis developed by Michelle Stack and the principles of multimodal analysis proposed by Luc Pauwels. The sample consists of five Russian and five Chinese HEIs which occupy top positions in QS University Ranking for BRICS 2019. National (Russian, Chinese) and international (English) versions of these universities' sites are analyzed. The study shows that Russian and Chinese universities are oriented primarily towards such key stakeholders as prospective students, current students and their families, and governmental agencies. Universities use their web-sites for promoting their brands among prospective students, both domestic and international, and for self-legitimization in the eyes of national governments. It was found that Chinese universities are generally more consistent in their pursuit of internationalization. Both Russian and Chinese universities, however, appear to be more focused on attracting international students rather than on establishing and developing official partnerships and academic collaborations. In their narratives, Chinese universities present themselves as rightful players on the global market that, while being embedded in national tradition and committed to innovation, are able to determine the future of the region and world in general. Russian universities, in their turn, seek to demonstrate their active involvement into the global academic context by highlighting their positions in world university rankings.

Culturally Sensitive Website Elements and Features: A Cross-National Comparison of Websites from Selected Countries

The goal of this case study is to compare websites from 9 different countries&#8213;Austria, Chile, China, Japan, Latvia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the US and the Czech Republic&#8213;and, based on this comparison, to provide the missing linking of website elements with cultural dimensions for better cultural adaptation of web content. Hofstede&#8217;s cultural dimensions were used for the selection of countries for this study. To examine the influence of culture on websites, countries with extreme values of cultural dimensions were selected. An important benefit is that this study takes into account all of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, including the latest one (indulgence vs restraint). For each country 50 websites were selected from areas that most closely reflect the culture of the country. The main focus was on the selection of an appropriate representative sample of websites for each state. A total of 450 pages was analyzed. For each website, 42 web elements determined as the most important were monitored. Moreover, the presence of various types of social networks and five general characteristics were monitored. The findings show that culture influences website design. The results of this study reveal a connection between website elements and Hofstede&#8217;s cultural dimensions. For example, headlines are important for countries with a high value of individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and a low value of power distance and indulgence. Newsletters are associated with a high value of indulgence and a low value of long-term orientation and search option with a high value of power distance. Overall, about 20 culturally sensitive website elements were identified. The study also provides a comprehensive overview of website characteristics for each of the selected countries. For UX designers, web localization specialists, academicians, and web developers, this study provides an original view into culturally sensitive website elements and features.