Comments on: culture differences in web design

By: Helge

Helge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:42:48 +0000

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.

By: Christina Rogge

Christina Rogge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:16:20 +0000

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.

By: Helge

Helge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:55:10 +0000

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.

By: Helge

Helge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:42:48 +0000

By: Christina Rogge

Christina Rogge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:16:20 +0000

By: Helge

Helge — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:55:10 +0000

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

By: Bodenseepeter

Bodenseepeter — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:06:04 +0000

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

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:58:25 +0000

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.