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28.Jul.2009 culture differences in web design

Filed In: intercultural, marketing, web, website development

Every time I view a Chinese website or a website using Chinese characters (traditional or simplified) I am overwhelmed by the amount of information depicted.

To demonstrate what I mean and analyze it I picked out the website of yahoo for Taiwan and the USA.

yahoo USA

yahoo Taiwan

You can clearly see that the page of Yahoo USA is offering less information.
So what did Yahoo Taiwan do differently?

  • the “sign in – field” is bigger and has more options
  • advertising (acer, LG and a housing project)
  • less news (above acer ad) and more shopping (shoes, mobile phones, cosmetic)
  • when you view the page in your browser you’ll also notice that the Taiwanese site is longer
  • less icons

(to only name a few)

I asked myself: Why do they do it that way?
Obviously their customers are different. Consequently does the difference between Chinese and Americans (please excuse my generalization here) dictate the way Yahoo sets up their websites.

And in general it’s a culture difference, because culture is:

“the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and which is transmitted from generation to generation through learning“ Bates DG, Plog F: Cultural Anthropology. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1990, p 7

If the members of a society use their culture as a “tool” to deal with the world, it is no wonder it should influence the design of websites online.  In the next few posts I will describe some aspects of culture, which are most influential for web design.

8 Comments
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  • http://paulstamatiou.com Paul Stamatiou

    Looking forward to the next posts. But yeah, definitely agree that culture should also dictate how you handle your online actions and strategy. As a former Yahoo! intern, I'd often get see links to other Yahoo properties and was always in a bit of culture shock when I saw some of their foreign sites. In particular I remember a Y! Japanese site that has some sort of animated way of searching for stuff.. rather interesting. I'll try to post the link if I remember it.

  • http://www.bodenseepeter.de/ Bodenseepeter

    So Bikemap.et is doing everything wrong, but still surprisingly successful in Taiwan…

  • http://www.helge.at/ Helge

    I'm not sure if I agree. Only some years ago most “portals” in the US showed a similar density of information. Recent years have brought many relaunches, most oft them removing most of the clutter. If I remember correctly Yahoo simplified their .com version in 2006 or so.

    There is a second factor: Asian typography allows for much smaller text boxes, due to shorter (but higher) words. Also reading/scanning habits are more vertically oriented which technically makes more columns possible.

    Yet that the decision to fill the free'd space with more content is a good idea (usability-wise) – I doubt it.

  • http://christinarogge.com Christina Rogge

    I am glad that this article interests quite a few people. Since I have knowledge in intercultural differences I was interested in applying it to the Web 2.0 – World.

    I do agree that there are other factors of influence, even stronger ones.
    I am just trying to add yet another perspective to it all.

    And certainly more content is not the way for reaching goals, rather than original ideas.

  • http://www.helge.at/ Helge

    Your article definitely made me think about the matter, thanks for that. I only wanted to say that I doubt that culture is the *only* (or main) factor. On the other hand also the designer decisions are a matter of culture – even if their decisions don't match user preferences. May also depend on hierarchical company structures and/or designer education. Those factors may well differ between Asia and US.

  • http://www.helge.at/ Helge

    I'm not sure if I agree. Only some years ago most “portals” in the US showed a similar density of information. Recent years have brought many relaunches, most oft them removing most of the clutter. If I remember correctly Yahoo simplified their .com version in 2006 or so.

    There is a second factor: Asian typography allows for much smaller text boxes, due to shorter (but higher) words. Also reading/scanning habits are more vertically oriented which technically makes more columns possible.

    Yet that the decision to fill the free'd space with more content is a good idea (usability-wise) – I doubt it.

  • http://christinarogge.com Christina Rogge

    I am glad that this article interests quite a few people. Since I have knowledge in intercultural differences I was interested in applying it to the Web 2.0 – World.

    I do agree that there are other factors of influence, even stronger ones.
    I am just trying to add yet another perspective to it all.

    And certainly more content is not the way for reaching goals, rather than original ideas.

  • http://www.helge.at/ Helge

    Your article definitely made me think about the matter, thanks for that. I only wanted to say that I doubt that culture is the *only* (or main) factor. On the other hand also the designer decisions are a matter of culture – even if their decisions don't match user preferences. May also depend on hierarchical company structures and/or designer education. Those factors may well differ between Asia and US.