These visual elements generally do not easily transfer across cultures. For example, navigational images and text grouping intended to indicate the directional flow of information may confuse non-Western students. Several languages are traditionally written vertically, and read from right to leave. Thus, a directional arrow placed at the bottom right and pointing right for the next page may be counter intuitive to them. Likewise placing important information in the top left-hand section of a page may not be recognised by people in Eastern cultures as a cognitive organiser.
Similar problems occur when using images and icons to convey meaning.
Cultures differ according to the to amount of visual information they prefer. Icons are the visual language of a culture and are drawn from items people commonly use and recognise. An item readily identified in one culture however, may be totally unknown in another. While the WWW may be leading to an increase in cross-cultural communication and interaction, there are many design issues that need to be addressed in order to ensure culturally inclusive Web sites. Instructional designers need to incorporate cultural understandings of technology into the design of learning materials.