A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Websites from High-Context Cultures and Low-Context Cultures

The aim of this study is to explore and identify the strategies used by High-Context cultures in utilizing the Internet—a largely Low-Context medium—for communication and marketing purposes. It is hypothesized that individuals in High-Context cultures are more likely to adopt the visual effects offered by the Internet to convey their messages efficiently than their Low-Context counterparts. How might High-Context cultures make the most of the potentials offered by the Internet generation of today? Assuming that visual communication is a high priority in the design of High-Context websites, how do the visual methods used on websites vary according to the communication styles in different cultures? Using Hall's Highand Low-Context dimensions as the main parameters, an exploratory analysis of McDonald's websites identified five different strategies by which visual communication is used to support High-Context communication traits.