cross-cultural

This page looks at cross-cultural issues - within and across national borders.

     introductions

For a lucid introduction to some online cross-cultural issues see the Culturability: The Merging of Culture and Usability paper by Wendy Barber & Albert Badre, The Cultural Context of Web Genres: Content vs. Style (PDF) by Badre & Sharon Laskowski and his 2000 The Effects of Cross Cultural Interface Design Orientation on World Wide Web User Performance (PDF).

Other studies of 'markers' include the 1997 paper The Effects of Cultural Markers on Web Site Use by Charles Sheppard & Jean Scholtz, the 1999 paper Cultural Dimensions & Global Web User-Interface Design: What? So What? Now What? by Aaron Marcus

There's a more detailed discussion in Designing User Interfaces for International Use (Amsterdam: Elsevier 90) edited by Jakob Nielsen and his International User Interfaces, (New York: Wiley 96), co-edited with Elise Del Galdo. Global Interface Design: A Guide to Designing International User Interfaces (Boston: AP Professional 95) by Tony Fernandes is also of interest.

The Culturable Usability project in Helsinki is of broader interest.

     colours and symbols

Among studies concerned with cross-cultural communication - colours and symbols - we recommend Global Graphics: Color (Gloucester: Rockport 00) by Cheryl Cullen and Global Graphics: Symbols (Gloucester: Rockport 00) by Jared Brown & Anistatia Miller.

DoubleClick comments that

Colors effect the eye differently. Using bright colors can help attract a user's eye, contributing to higher response rates. Research has shown that blue, green and yellow work best, while white, red, and black are less effective.

Mitchell Harper claims that the five 'most used' colour combinations on the Web are

-   red, yellow and white
-   blue and white
-   red, gray and white
-   blue, orange and white
-   yellow, gray and white

Henry Dreyfuss' Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold 84) is showing its age but hasn't been superseded, although William Horton's The Icon Book: Visual Symbols for Computer Systems & Documentation (New York: Wiley 94) is more directly relevant.

The 2001 Effectiveness of Graphical Components in Web Site E-commerce Application - A Cultural Perspective (PDF) by Kyeong-Soon Kang & Brian Corbitt comments on intercultural differences regarding animations.

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