The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles: A comparative study
This article looks to the tendency of a countrys crafts and industries to produce in a particular industry style. Industry styles are value-expressive, often established through implicit design features that companies apply undeliberately. Two studies are carried out on the web design of small and medium sized ICT companies in Germany and Spain. The first study shows how industry styles can be understood and designed as expressive of a countrys value orientation. It thus provides a method for design according to a local industry style. The second study demonstrates the effectiveness of cultural adaptation to an industry style. It shows that users in Germany and Spain find web pages with industry styles adapted to local culture more trustworthy and appealing.
styling software design design method(s) evaluation cross-cultural research