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Website Design for Global Communication

When the Internet became operational for the world, it looked as if its users were part of a global community with similar interests. As we have seen in the previous section, however, people soon started to use it for different purposes. As a result, Web sites will have to be different to attract Internet users in different cultures.

The first thing done by international companies who adopted it as a new global medium was allow for foreign names, zip codes, and countries, currency formats and units of measurement, and international telephone numbers. The next step was language. Although many will say they speak English, the comprehension problems associated with reading a foreign language will affect the ease of use and appeal of a Web site. Basically, Web site design for international usage has gone through steps similar to international advertising.

Initially people thought the Web was a universal global means of communication, but soon they discovered that the same laws operate as in other communications. Across cultures, people vary in the ways they want to be addressed. Values and motives vary as well as communication styles. For example, university Web sites in feminine cultures have a softer approach and are more people oriented than Web sites of universities in masculine cultures that are more focused on achievement.

Along with culture, there is variation in the way information is presented, the amount of data used, the use of extreme claims, rhetorical style, and the degree to which information is explicit, precise, and direct. Another culture-bound element is the option to contact people, which is, for example, limited in Spanish Web sites.58 Offering the possibility to contact people in Web sites suggests equality in low power distance cultures, whereas it is limited in high power distance cultures.

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