Evaluation of Cross-cultural Web Information System Design Guidelines

This article summarizes, analyzes and evaluates the selected set of guidelines provided for the cross-cultural web information system design. Globalization affects various fields of human activities such as communication, business, travelling and others. In a business field, many companies search a way to expand their services globally. One of the main support tools for a global business is an information system that can function online and instantly serve information to people from various parts of the world. Such information system is often called a cross-cultural web information system. In this paper hypothesis is brought forward that part of the guidelines provided for cross-cultural web information system designers are not appropriate for application in the existing or in future developed projects. Guidelines are selected based on certain criteria. Evaluations of most visited web information systems by users from Japan and Latvia are performed by researchers from both countries. Evaluation results compliance to the summarized guidelines is