Ahmed Ahmed Lab Report-4 109941886 Research Problem
As economic globalization continues to shape the modern world , one has to look at how actors (businesses,multinational corporations,NGOs….) market their products or services through interface design to the different cultures and different people of their market. The 21st century has seen the Internet dominate the way people receive information, and web pages, as advertisements have been increasingly important to getting their messages across. Companies try to reach a wider audience through their webpage and the interface design is the first thing people see on that webpage. Many websites have different versions of their website, such as the US version or the Chinese version of McDonalds on the World Wide Web. How companies choose to change their websites and to optimize their success in communicating their message doesn’t come down to word for word translations of the original website but through changes in interface design. We are in a historical period where culture itself is being converted into readable and seeable representational content; businesses are rendering down culture to achieve their capitalist agendas. The power brokers of multinational companies are using marketing in a way that simplifies and reduces cultural differences, even as they try to account for it. Marketing tries to act on a person’s sense of identity and for different cultures that means different things. Interface design of a companies website is meant as an aid to help the marketing of their products, services or initiatives. Acknowledging that there are different versions of a companies website for different countries, makes it clear that different people see differently in the cyber world. When big companies try to account for these differences, they sometimes make costly mistakes. One example of a company’s failure in appropriating cultural symbols for their marketing is McDonalds in Saudi Arabia. In an effort to account for Saudi Arabia’s culture, McDonalds thought it would impress the Saudis if they put the Saudi flag on their boxes that the food came in. McDonalds used the Saudi flag as a symbol, even as a tool to gain more marketing power. What McDonalds, didn’t account for though, is how sacred Saudis consider their flag. On the Saudi flag there is Gods name on it in Arabic, “Allah”. When people would go throw away their food after they were done with it, they were essentially throwing away Gods name in the trash. This angered many Saudi people and McDonalds were forced to take their symbol off. Through that scandal, McDonalds showed that there was an immense gulf between the east and the west. People have a problem with reducing of complex cultural heritage to very tradeable, cut and paste-able clip art, symbols and styles of writing. Big companies need to account for culture in their interface design.Alienation is at stake even as it is trying to be accounted for, and no company wants to alienate their consumers. What then can stop this alienation? Good interface design is key to the success of marketing for big companies. What good interface design is though, is different for different cultures. Elizabeth Würtz makes the distinction between high-context culture and low context cultures and how differences in these cultures account for different things that would make the interface design more successful. A low context culture is where “communication occurs predominantly through explicit statements in text and speech “ (Würtz). A high context culture is where “communication involves implying a message through that which is not uttered. This includes the situation, behavior, and paraverbal cues as integral parts of the communicated message“ (Würtz). Würtz shows that for cross-culture web design, consideration of attributes of “culture-specific color connotations, preferences in layout, animation and sounds“ in different cultures is imperative (Würtz). For different cultures Würtz talks about how the different thought patterns, language and other cultural variables, such as individualism, effects what would help businesses communicate their message most effectively. Coming up with the best formula for interface design for different countries web pages, is important to our global economy and ethical treatment of consumers of different cultures.
Würtz, Elizabeth. "Intercultural Communication on Web Sites: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Web Sites from High-Context Cultures and Low-Context Cultures." IT University of Copenhagen, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fonlinelibrary.wiley.com%2Fstore%2F10.1111%2Fj.1083-6101.2006.tb00313.x%2Fasset%2Fj.1083-6101.2006.tb00313.x.pdf%3Bjsessionid%3DE733A3CA621623B153971EBE575519F2.f03t02%3Fv%3D1%26t%3Di8etgr2k%26s%3D135b712a10b76abf56f3920015a0075612ac1f0e>.
As economic globalization continues to shape the modern world , one has to look at how actors (businesses,multinational corporations,NGOs….) market their products or services through interface design to the different cultures and different people of their market. The 21st century has seen the Internet dominate the way people receive information, and web pages, as advertisements have been increasingly important to getting their messages across. Companies try to reach a wider audience through their webpage and the interface design is the first thing people see on that webpage. Many websites have different versions of their website, such as the US version or the Chinese version of McDonalds on the World Wide Web. How companies choose to change their websites and to optimize their success in communicating their message doesn’t come down to word for word translations of the original website but through changes in interface design. We are in a historical period where culture itself is being converted into readable and seeable representational content; businesses are rendering down culture to achieve their capitalist agendas. The power brokers of multinational companies are using marketing in a way that simplifies and reduces cultural differences, even as they try to account for it. Marketing tries to act on a person’s sense of identity and for different cultures that means different things. Interface design of a companies website is meant as an aid to help the marketing of their products, services or initiatives. Acknowledging that there are different versions of a companies website for different countries, makes it clear that different people see differently in the cyber world. When big companies try to account for these differences, they sometimes make costly mistakes. One example of a company’s failure in appropriating cultural symbols for their marketing is McDonalds in Saudi Arabia. In an effort to account for Saudi Arabia’s culture, McDonalds thought it would impress the Saudis if they put the Saudi flag on their boxes that the food came in. McDonalds used the Saudi flag as a symbol, even as a tool to gain more marketing power. What McDonalds, didn’t account for though, is how sacred Saudis consider their flag. On the Saudi flag there is Gods name on it in Arabic, “Allah”. When people would go throw away their food after they were done with it, they were essentially throwing away Gods name in the trash. This angered many Saudi people and McDonalds were forced to take their symbol off. Through that scandal, McDonalds showed that there was an immense gulf between the east and the west. People have a problem with reducing of complex cultural heritage to very tradeable, cut and paste-able clip art, symbols and styles of writing. Big companies need to account for culture in their interface design. Alienation is at stake even as it is trying to be accounted for, and no company wants to alienate their consumers. What then can stop this alienation? Good interface design is key to the success of marketing for big companies. What good interface design is though, is different for different cultures. Elizabeth Würtz makes the distinction between high-context culture and low context cultures and how differences in these cultures account for different things that would make the interface design more successful. A low context culture is where “communication occurs predominantly through explicit statements in text and speech “ (Würtz). A high context culture is where “communication involves implying a message through that which is not uttered. This includes the situation, behavior, and paraverbal cues as integral parts of the communicated message“ (Würtz). Würtz shows that for cross-culture web design, consideration of attributes of “culture-specific color connotations, preferences in layout, animation and sounds“ in different cultures is imperative (Würtz). For different cultures Würtz talks about how the different thought patterns, language and other cultural variables, such as individualism, effects what would help businesses communicate their message most effectively. Coming up with the best formula for interface design for different countries web pages, is important to our global economy and ethical treatment of consumers of different cultures.
Würtz, Elizabeth. "Intercultural Communication on Web Sites: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Web Sites from High-Context Cultures and Low-Context Cultures." IT University of Copenhagen, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fonlinelibrary.wiley.com%2Fstore%2F10.1111%2Fj.1083-6101.2006.tb00313.x%2Fasset%2Fj.1083-6101.2006.tb00313.x.pdf%3Bjsessionid%3DE733A3CA621623B153971EBE575519F2.f03t02%3Fv%3D1%26t%3Di8etgr2k%26s%3D135b712a10b76abf56f3920015a0075612ac1f0e>.