Arabic Website Design: User Evaluation from a Cultural Perspective

The cultural background of web users may play a key role in the way they interact with and perceive the usability and usefulness of websites. Twenty Arab participants evaluated and compared 2 websites from 2 countries within their culture to identify their preferences and expectations of the design of Arabic websites in order to examine whether these preferences are consistent with their cultural-specific attributes as described and predicted by Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions. The results suggest that these participants showed an overall preference for one website over the other.

[1]  G. Hofstede,et al.  Culture′s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values , 1980 .

[2]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Designing web usability , 1999 .

[3]  S. Herring,et al.  Cultural differences in the design of human-computer interfaces: a multinational study of university websites , 2007 .

[4]  B. Shneiderman.  Universal Usability: Pushing Human-Computer Interaction Research to Empower Every Citizen , 1999 .

[5]  Nuray Aykin,et al.  Global and local user interfaces , 2007 .

[6]  Nuray Aykin,et al.  Internationalization, Design and Global Development, Third International Conference, IDGD 2009, Held as Part of HCI International 2009, San Diego, CA, USA, July 19-24, 2009. Proceedings , 2009, HCI.

[7]  Sajjad Zahir,et al.  Cross-cultural dimensions of Internet portals , 2002, Internet Res..

[8]  Lene Nielsen,et al.  Usability and internationalization , 2007 .

[9]  Aaron Marcus,et al.  The Impact of Culture on the Design of Arabic Websites , 2009, HCI.

[10]  Aaron Marcus,et al.  User Validation of Cultural Dimensions of a Website Design , 2007, HCI.

[11]  Ben Shneiderman,et al.  Universal usability , 2000, Commun. ACM.

[12]  Panayiotis Zaphiris.  Human Computer Interaction Research in Web Design and Evaluation , 2006 .

[13]  G. Hofstede.  Culture′s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations , 2001 .

[14]  Tony Fernandes,et al.  Global interface design: a guide to designing international user interfaces , 1995 .

[15]  Aaron Marcus,et al.  Cultural Dimensions and Global Web User-Interface Design , 2000 .

[16]  Andrew Large,et al.  Measuring Cultural Markers in Arabic Government Websites Using Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions , 2011, HCI.