Designers' Perspective of Website Usability: The Cultural Dimension

The aim of this paper is to conduct a comparative study between liberal and prescriptive cultures (in this case Arab and British audiences) to extract the views of Web designers in both countries regarding web usability. Its purpose is to determine the most important issues that should be considered when designing for a particular culture. It is also intended to investigate the extent of the usage of the published usability guidelines and tools in the design of the user interface of a website. The data collection instrument consisted of a 7-page questionnaire for the designers and in many cases, this was followed with an interview or an email to the surveyed designers to clarify their responses. The main outcome of this study was that the designers in both countries believed that although the users share similar preferences and perceptions about many website usability issues, they differ in the importance they give to certain usability elements such as the adherence to local language, culture and religious beliefs. The results of this study proved that one-size-for-all is not the right approach for a successful website. It highlighted the need to consider the customers’ cultural background and their real world experience.