Web Site Analysis Across Cultures: An Inquiry into Intercultural Values and Web Site Design

Abstract

The countries and cultures of the world are becoming much more interdependent. At the same time, the development and use of the World Wide Web has dramatically increased cross-cultural contact in many areas. This growth in cross-cultural contact must be influencing the rhetorical and cultural patterns at the local, national, and international level. Researchers, however, simply do not know how and what is happening in such exchanges. This chapter presents a theoretical approach to Web site design, cultural values, and rhetorical traditions. The chapter then describes the methods of researchers who examined the Web site designs in nine cultures, and finally discusses the results of comparing Web site designs to local cultural and rhetorical traditions.