The cultural adaptation of web design to
local industry styles: A comparative study
Dirk Snelders1
, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of
Technology, Landbergstraat 15, 2628 CE, Delft, The Netherlands
Kaj P. N. Morel, Mercurius Marketing, Saxion University of Applied
Sciences, Twentepoort Oost 34, 7609 RG, Almelo, The Netherlands
Pieter Havermans, LOOQS, Randweg 24, 2941 CG, Lekkerkerk,
The Netherlands
This article looks to the tendency of a country’s 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 country’s 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.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: software design, styling, design method(s), evaluation, cross-cultural
research
T
he homepage of carmaker SEAT is slightly different in Germany than it
is in Spain (SEAT Germany, 2009; SEAT Spain, 2009). The German
homepage contains extra information, and shows this more directly
than the Spanish homepage. Some of its non-product visuals are also different
from those used in Spain. The German homepage features a picture of car
mechanics standing in a field under a blue sky, while the Spanish homepage
features a picture of a street full of cars and people, most of them women.
These differences might reflect on the way the SEAT brand positions itself
in Germany and Spain against its competitors, and be part of a different brand
style for the two countries. However, the secondary nature of these differences
makes it likely that they were created without such an explicit goal, based on
an implicit idea of what the German and Spanish offices thought was appropriate
for German or Spanish users. Indeed, a further inspection of the homepages
in automotive industry suggests that to some extent such differences are
industry wide, in that the German and Spanish homepages of other brands
show differences that are vaguely similar to those found for SEAT.
Corresponding author:
Dirk Snelders
h.m.j.j.snelders@tue.nl
www.elsevier.com/locate/destud
0142-694X $ - see front matter Design Studies 32 (2011) 457e481
doi:10.1016/j.destud.2011.03.001 457
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Such cross-cultural, industry-wide differences in web pages point to the existence
of local industry styles in web design. In the past, researchers who
have investigated cross-cultural differences in web pages have stressed the importance
of adapting to local customs, because this would enhance user trust
and appreciation of the website. These researchers have given a prominent role
to web design in achieving this. However, they have not laid out how web designers
can achieve the adaptation of web pages to local industry styles, nor
have they effectively tested the effect of adapting such styles on user evaluations.
In this article, we will first look to the role of local industry styles in design,
using insights from traditionally dispersed literatures. In Section 1, we
will introduce the concept of industry style (drawing from the literature on
product and graphic design, art and architecture) and the potential benefits
for firms to adapt their styles to local markets (drawing from the literature
on marketing). Section 2 then looks to earlier studies on the cultural adaption
of design, which have been carried out almost exclusively in the field of web
design. This discussion leads to the position that local industry styles reflect
on the values shared by companies and users in a local market, often in a highly
implicit manner. The cultural adaptation of the design of one local industry
style to another then becomes a matter of comparing the stylistic differences
between industries from different countries, and of interpreting these differences,
based on the diverging value orientations in those countries.
Next, two studies will be presented on the cultural adaptation of web design. In
these studies, we will compare the local industry styles of homepages of small
and medium sized ICT companies in Germany and Spain. In Study 1, we will
ask the question how to understand and create differences in the industry styles
of companies from those countries, based on the values that they express. To
this purpose, the websites of local ICT companies in Germany and Spain were analysed
from a cultural values perspective. Based on this analysis, two designs were
made for the homepage of an ICT company, one in a German and the other in
a Spanish industry style. These designs were tested against German and Spanish
homepages, and it is shown that both are successfully recognised as belonging to
their respective German and Spanish ‘families’ of homepages. Thus, Study 1 provides
a method for the analysis and simulation of industry styles, based on a crosscultural
comparison and a focus on the implicit design features that make up an
industry style. Study 2 addresses the question of whether culturally adapted websites
are more acceptable to users ina local setting,intermsof their initialtrust and
attitude. This study shows that homepage adaptation to a local (German or Spanish)
industry style has a positive influence on local users’ trust and attitude.
1 Value-expressive industry styles that incite familiarity,
trust, and positive attitudes
In the past, some nationalist states and their institutions have expressed their
values by actively creating a national style for their favoured industries (for
458 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
examples, see Woodham, 1997, 2010). However, in most cases the expression
of local values through design can be regarded as the natural result of a country’s
crafts and industries producing in a particular style. Here, industry styles
are defined as arising up and above the individual brand styles of the companies
that make up a local industry. Cleveland (2010) gives the example of the
brand style (or ‘house’ style) of the life style magazine Vogue, whose graphic
layout creates a visual identity for the brand Vogue. In a historical analysis,
Cleveland (2010: p. 9) also speaks of period styles, where local magazines
like Vogue and Cosmopolitan have ‘their own stylistic attributions which
make up the visual grammar of the day.’ To the extent that such period styles
are particular to a local industry, and within a given time period, we can speak
of a local industry style (e.g., of today’s American life style magazines such as
American Vogue, Cosmopolitan, etc.).
The literature on the design of industry styles is sparse, so as a starting point
we turn to the literature on brand styles. One stream of work, on ‘visual brand
identity,’ has focused on how product design is able to express brand values
(Karjalainen, 2004; 2007; Karjalainen & Snelders, 2010; Karjalainen &
Warell, 2005). The studies in this area have followed up on the general idea
of design as a form of communication, capable of expressing certain ideas, either
by companies or society as a whole (for example, see Crilly, Good,
Matravers & Clarkson, 2008; Forty, 1986; Mon€o, 1997). Specifically, these
studies have looked at how companies transform the brand values promoted
by them into design features, thus creating a particular style for the brand
that can be repeated over the different products of a brand.
Another stream of research on brand styles has focused on ‘shape grammars,’
i.e., reoccurring combinations of design features in a group of products. A
shape grammar analysis based on reoccurring features can help to synthesize
new designs that can be recognized by users as belonging to a particular brand
(Agarwal & Cagan, 1998; McCormack, Cagan, & Vogel, 2004; Pugliese &
Cagan, 2002; Shih-Wen & Chen, 1997). The shape grammar approach has
its roots in architecture, where it was originally regarded as a way of simulating
architectural styles (Knight, 1983; Stiny, 1980). Recently, Chan (2000) has
elaborated on this idea that shape grammars can be conceived of as styles. He
followed the art historian Ackerman’s (1962) definition of style as a reoccurring
solution to an artist’s problem of expression, leading to certain qualities
that are identifiable in the artefacts produced by the artist, or by groups of artists
of a specific school, period, or region. It is this definition of style that we
depart from in this article (see Person & Snelders, 2010, for a more elaborate
discussion of this definition of style in design). In general, a style in design can
be seen as being based on an expressive way of designing by (groups of) designers,
who, in the case of brand styles, work for a brand, or, in the case of
industry styles, work in a local industry.
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 459
The studies on visual brand identity and shape grammars can be seen as demonstrations
of how design styles can be identified through an analysis of the
structural aspects of design, and of the value-expressive character of these aspects.
However, a number of issues pertaining to industry styles remain untouched
by this literature. First, these studies have analysed and studied
design styles, often (and preferably so) through comparisons across different
brands within an industry. Industry styles, however, are attributed to the designs
of a local industry, which itself comprises of several companies that have
their own brand styles. Therefore, for industry styles the basis of comparison
becomes cross-cultural, over industries in different countries working within
the same domain. Such comparisons should point to forms of value expression
through design that are less tied to the market differentiation efforts of individual
brands within countries, and more to differences between industries as
a whole.
Second, Ackerman’s definition of style focuses on the outcome of a process
that might come about undeliberately, and that can reveal itself in various
ways, and also through the work of various designers working in the same context.
For brand styles, this context is created by the directions of corporate,
brand, and R&D management that aim to express the competitive advantage
of the company (Ravasi & Lojacono, 2005). However, if industry styles exist
up and above the differentiation efforts of individual companies, the context
in which they arise is likely to be found more broadly, in the value orientations
that designers share with companies operating in a local industry. This has also
been argued by Razzaghi, Ramirez, and Zehner (2009), who studied cross-cultural
differences between Iran and Australia for student-generated concepts
for telecommunication devices. These authors looked to within-country similarities
and cross-country differences in the designs of the students from both
countries, and their interpretation of the divergent design styles of Iranian and
Australian students was guided by the different value orientations in these
countries, as established earlier by Hofstede (2001). This insight is particularly
relevant for industry styles, since these denote similarities in the work of a varied
set of companies, and each of these is likely to deviate from the other in
terms of a heavily promoted, and more explicit brand style. Thus, compared
to brand styles, industry styles are likely to be less formalized, less connected
to, and less explained by the marketing communication efforts of individual
companies. Therefore, a priori knowledge of local values (such as provided
by Hofstede) might help to understand what local industry styles are expressing,
and through what stylistic means they are achieving their implicit communication
of value.
Third, from a users’ perspective, the assumption in the brand style literature
has been that users will appreciate design styles that express certain (brand)
values. However, to our knowledge this assumption is not much tested. For
industry styles, a test of user evaluations has the complication that users will
460 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
not easily notice the design features of a local industry style, because it exists as
a relatively constant factor over a number of products that vary conspicuously
in their brand style. Given the implicit character of industry styles, the evaluation
by users is likely to become more implicit as well. As an implicit measure
for the design according to a local industry style, we will use a measure of ‘family
resemblance.’ This measure is comparable to the procedures used by
Razzaghi et al. (2009) who studied the within-country similarities of conceptual
designs of Iranian and Australian students. Originally a criterion put forward
by Wittgenstein (1958), and later formalized as a measure by Barsalou
(1985), family resemblance expresses the degree in which an object is similar
to other objects of the same family, on the basis of consciously or unconsciously
perceived similarities between those objects. The assumption is that
these similarities are based on reoccurring features in the objects, and thus
point to the existence of a style in these objects. But style attribution is implicit
here, because the features that form the basis of the style need not be consciously
perceived, and thus for the user only exist by implication.
Furthermore, we expect that the evaluation of a local industry style by local
users will be based on their acceptance of designs that express a particular
value orientation, and the inherent trust that such design incites. This expectation
is based on a theory in marketing of shared values (Morgan & Hunt, 1994:
p. 25), which elaborates on the relation between familiarity, trust, and attitude
formation. Shared values refer to ‘the extent to which partners have beliefs in
common about what behaviours, goals, and policies are important or unimportant,
appropriate or inappropriate, and right or wrong.’ Applied to design,
this theory thus refers to the degree in which the design of a product reflects
shared values between companies and users. Shared values are a direct precursor
of a desire to maintain a valued relationship and to rely on a trusted exchange
partner. In order to successfully accommodate their design style to
the values of local users, companies should become aware of the values upheld
by local users, and make their designs expressive of those values. The theory of
shared values predicts that successful accommodation leads users to reward
the companies’ sensitivity to their values with their trust and patronage.
To summarise, given the implicit character of industry styles and the fact that
they are shared by companies in a local industry, the best way to investigate the
effect of industry styles on user evaluation is comparatively, based on an analysis
of how industries from different countries operate on the basis of different
value orientations. The criterion for culturally adapted design would be an implicit
measure of family resemblance: does the new design appear to be similar
to other designs from a particular industry? Study 1 will address the question
of how to adapt a design to a local industry style. It does so by providing
a method for adapting design to a local industry style, based on a cross-cultural
comparison and a focus on the implicit design features that make up
an industry style. If the cultural adaptation of a design to a local industry style
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 461
has been successful, a second question is whether the impression of users is
such that they would trust and appreciate culturally adapted designs. This
question has for the most part been addressed in the area of web design, which
is discussed in the next section.
2 Cross-cultural comparisons in the design styles of
websites
Web design is the most studied application area for cross-cultural differences
in design. In this section we will briefly discuss this literature, focussing on international
comparisons in the design styles of websites. Before doing so, we
should note that this literature has not explicitly addressed the notion of industry
styles. In addition, web design is but one of the design disciplines through
which companies express themselves to their users, next to other disciplines
such as industrial design, architecture, fashion, etc.2
Yet, it has been noted
that the cross-cultural differences in web design tend to be industry specific
(Barber & Badre, 1998), which points to the existence of industry styles in
this domain.3
Furthermore, web design is a large and dynamic area of design
practice, with many local efforts by smaller companies, but the resulting designs
can be very accessible to users from different countries.
In the literature on internet marketing, the issue of trust has come up as a central
concern. This is because of the finding that users refrain from online interactions
with a company mainly because they do not trust the company’s
website enough (Fogg et al., 2001; Hoffman, Novak, & Peralta, 1999;
Schlosser, White, & Lloyd, 2006). In line with this literature, this article defines
trust as the believability of an object, a person, or a piece of information. This
definition is close to later conceptualizations of ‘exchange trust,’ ‘ability,’ and
‘integrity’ of websites, which are found to be important dimensions of trust
(see Chong, Yang, & Wong, 2003; Gefen, 2002; Kiryanova, 2003 for a reviews
of the literature on dimensions of online trust).
Previous studies on web-based trust have acknowledged the importance of design
for creating trustworthy websites: The look and feel of a website is paramount
in first attracting the attention of a user and signalling the
trustworthiness of the site’ (Briggs, Burford, De Angeli, & Lynch, 2002:
p. 330). Fogg et al. (2003) further emphasize the importance of an appropriate
design style in relation to web-based trust; in a survey study they find that
nearly half of the users base their degree of trust in a website on the overall
visual impression of the site. Finally, Schlosser et al. (2006: p. 135) have shown
that investments in the web design of e-commerce sites lead to stronger trust
beliefs in the general competences of the company, and also to stronger online
purchase intentions. In particular, these authors stress that it is the ‘front-end
(design) elements of a website’ that play a role in this, because ‘people will
462 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
likely generalize their trust in a firm’s ability in one area (design) to other related
areas (e.g., order fulfilment)’ (parentheses in the original).
Both the literatures on internet marketing and on computerehuman interaction
have looked to cultural differences in web design. In these literatures,
the conclusion is that web design guidelines for enhancing user trust and attitude
need to be country-specific. The analysis of cultural differences in web design
clearly shows systematic differences between countries. This search is
guided by insights on cultural differences e in particular Hofstede’s cultural
dimensions of collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and masculinity
(for an extensive review of these dimensions see Hofstede, 2001). Studies
by Singh et al. (Singh & Baack, 2004; Singh & Matsuo, 2004; Singh, Zhao, &
Hu, 2005) show that many aspects of a website’s general build-up and content
reflect differences in the value orientation of countries, as profiled by the Hofstede
value-dimensions. An application of this approach to web design is the
work by Barber and Badre (1998) and Cyr and Trevor-Smith (2004) on cultural
markers in local websites. Barber et al. (1998: p. 2) define cultural
markers as ‘interface design elements that are prevalent, and possibly preferred,
within a particular group. Such markers signify a cultural affiliation.’
Colour, spatial organisation, fonts, shapes, icons, communication style,
sounds, flags, and the use of animation are examples of cultural markers.
The mere existence of large and interpretable cross-cultural differences between
existing websites has led many authors to suggest that adaptation to local
industry standards is the advised practice for cross-cultural web design (see
Cyr & Trevor-Smith, 2004; Gefen & Heart, 2006; Marcus & Gould, 2000;
Singh, 2003; Singh & Baack, 2004; Singh & Matsuo, 2004; Singh et al.,
2005). Some authors have also looked more closely to the particular benefits
of cultural adaptation for practice. In general, these authors depart from the
idea of compatibility (Winn & Beck, 2002: p. 20), which is in line with the theory
of shared values discussed above: ‘compatibility can be established by using
a unified voice that expresses the customer’s values: web design that creates
a community culture fosters a sense of belonging.’ The idea that trust and familiarity
are linked is also expressed in the view that trust is based on the confirmation
of expectations developed from previous encounters with websites
(Kim, Ferrin, & Rao, 2003; Zhang & Zhang, 2005). With respect to this,
Kee and Knox (1970) state that familiar situations are more trusted because
they are perceived as less complex and less risky. Applied to web design, it
is believed that adapted websites with more familiar designs would be trusted
better (Gefen, 2000; Grabner-Kraeuter, Kaluscha, & Fladnitzer, 2006).
Although this literature provides a clear conclusion, there is limited direct
evidence supporting the claim that the cultural adaptation of the design of
websites leads to more trusted and better liked websites among users. The
methodological approach that characterizes most studies is one of finding
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 463
and describing differences, but not testing user evaluations of these differences.
As Taylor, Miracle, and Wilson (1997) note, it is unsound from a methodological
perspective to draw conclusions about the applicability or effectiveness of
web design on the basis of descriptive data, as most studies in this field have
done. There have been a limited number of comparative studies to examine
the effects of cultural adaptation of websites on user evaluations (Luna,
Peracchio, & De Juan, 2003; Singh, Furrer, & Ostinelli, 2004; Steenkamp &
Geyskens, 2006), although in none of them did the design style of the website
play a pervasive role. Taken together, these studies show that, under some conditions,
users like websites when they are culturally adapted. Note, however,
that these studies employed limited forms of cultural adaptation (e.g., the studies
compared websites with adapted country extensions in their URL, or standard
websites against translated sites in a single cultural setting), and
comparisons were made on attitude, and not on trust. Thus, the question remains
unanswered how the design of a web page can be successfully adapted
to a local industry style, and whether the adaptation to a local industry style
leads to higher levels of positive attitudes and trust. Study 2 addresses this
question, and it will show that homepage adaptation to a local industry style
has a positive influence on local users’ trust and attitude.
3 Study 1
Study 1 demonstrates a method, based on the theories about industry styles
described in Section 1. Following Section 2, the study focuses on the efforts
of an industry in the field of web design. However, since the theoretical foundations
are about industry styles in general, it should be possible to apply its
results to other design disciplines through which industry styles might arise
(such as industrial design, graphic design, etc.).
The purpose of the method is to design web pages that are reflective of a local industry
style. This method is demonstrated by applying it to the design of an adapted
homepage for Germany and Spain for an existing European (non-German,
non-Spanish) small-sized ICT company. The choice of Germany and Spain was
based on the fact thethesecountrieswere important for the company,andbecause
there are marked differences in the value orientation of these countries, based on
the scores on the Hofstede dimensions: Germans score higher on masculinity (66
vs. 42) and individualism (67 vs. 51), whereas Spain scores higher on power distance
(57 vs. 35) and uncertainty avoidance (86 vs. 65). Small and medium sized
companies were chosen to ensure that the companies were sufficiently local and
‘home-grown,’ and ICT is an industry that harbours large numbers of such companies
in both countries. The method comprised of three steps, each connected to
the particular character of industry styles discussed in the previous sections:
1. Cross-cultural comparison of industry styles
2. Guidelines and design according to a local industry style
3. Assessing the family resemblance of the adapted design
464 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
3.1 Cross-cultural comparison of industry styles
As a starting point, the existing literature on the relation between cultural dimensions
and cultural markers (Barber & Badre, 1998; De Mooij, 1998; Marcus &
Gould, 2000; Singh & Baack, 2004; Singh & Matsuo, 2004) was scanned for indications
of how cross-cultural differences in web design relate to the differing
scores of Germany and Spain on the Hofstede dimensions. As noted above,
Barber & Badre, 1998 have already noted how such cultural markers are industry
specific. For this reason, we checked in what specific way the cross-cultural differences
predicted by the literature can be found back in the homepages of German
and Spanish ICT companies. For this purpose, 27 existing German and 23
existing Spanish websites of local small and medium sized ICT companies were
examined (all software developers and consultants for business-to-business markets,
with specialisation in financial, customer relations, or organisational management,
among others). To prevent inclusion of homepages that are
internationally rather than locally oriented, the search was done through German
and Spanish search terms and on German and Spanish domains (.de and
.es). In addition, through the contact details on the homepages the origin of
each company was established as either truly German or Spanish.
The result of step 1 is a list of cross-cultural differences found between existing
web designs from two countries that can be interpreted from a cultural values
perspective. The list consisted of nine major differences between the ICT industries
in Germany and Spain, each relatable to one of the four value dimensions
of Hofstede. The following excerpt is an example of the result of this first
step, for one of the found differences:
‘Countries with a high level of uncertainty avoidance tend to have simpler
web pages with restricted amounts of data and more structured websites
than countries with low levels of uncertainty avoidance (Marcus &
Gould, 2000; Singh & Matsuo, 2004; Tsai, Chang, Chuang, & Wang,
2008). In addition, in countries with a high level of uncertainty avoidance,
navigation through the website is facilitated by using buttons that are easily
identified as links. In countries with low levels of uncertainty avoidance,
links are more often words in the text that are underlined (Singh &
Matsuo, 2004). These differences were also observed in the German and
Spanish homepages of ICT-SMEs. German homepages tended to be longer,
used scroll bars, and predominantly used text-links. Spanish homepages
were shorter and reserved most information for dedicated pages of
the website. Button-links were used predominantly on Spanish homepages,
often in a similar design as that of the banner and text frames, resulting in
altogether more neatly arranged homepages.’
3.2 Guidelines and design according to a local industry style
Based on the nine major differences in cultural markers between German and
Spanish ICT homepages found in Step 1, a list of design style criteria can be
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 465
made for creating adapted German and Spanish homepages within a particular
industry. These guidelines pertain to those aspects in the differences from
Step 1 that could be designed and become part of a value-expressive industry
style. For a large part these were aspects of graphic/web design, themes in the
applied text and visuals, and the way in which the homepage addresses users.
Table 1 lists the most important guidelines used for the design of homepages
adapted to a German or Spanish industry style.
Based on the design guidelines two concept-homepages were created by the
third author (then a final year design student specialized in the design of products
and their commercial interfaces), in close cooperation with the web designers
of the company. One concept-homepage was adapted to a German
industry style, the other adapted to a Spanish industry style. In a later stage
we could thus test both styles against the homepages of existing companies
in an industry, with one style being adapted, and the other unadapted to the
local industry style. For this reason, the German and Spanish styled homepages
were both translated into the German and Spanish from an original version
in the English language. This led to two adapted and two unadapted
homepages. For the adapted homepages, one was in the German language
and with a German design style, and one was designed in the Spanish language
and with a Spanish design style. The other two homepages were unadapted in
their design style: the one for the German market was in the German language
but with a Spanish design style, and the other for the Spanish market was in
the Spanish language but with a German design style.
To arrive at equivalent translations for the homepages, the original English
texts were translated and back-translated by two German and two Spanish native
speakers whose English was excellent. Specific attention was given to banner
texts and headlines, which were translated based on a procedure of
‘decentering’ (after Brislin, 1980; Werner & Campbell, 1970). This procedure
Table 1 Criteria for the design of homepages in a German and Spanish industry style
German industry style Spanish industry style
Textual focus Visual focus
Pictures of products and outside office environments Pictures of teams of customers/employees
More pictures of men More pictures of women
Small banner Big banner
No animation Animation
Page can have scroll bar Page fits to the screen
Links as text Links as buttons
A lot of information on one page Little information on one page
Focus on product Focus on status symbols
Focus on technical product information Focus on price
Focus on individual Focus on collective
Communicate ‘winning’ and ‘success’ Entertain with art and fashion
Opinion of experts Business partners
466 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
consists of iteratively searching for the most equivalent short paraphrases in
English, German and Spanish. Decentering was not chosen for the larger texts
because it can lead to fragmented translations when applied to larger texts, and
because larger texts can provide their own context for interpretation
(Harkness & Schoua-Glusberg, 1998). Finally, words on homepage buttons
and links were simply translated with the most commonly used words for
such buttons in both countries (these include a few English words such as
‘Home’ and ‘Go’). Appendix A presents the adapted homepages for Germany
and Spain in the local industry style and language.
3.3 Assessing the family resemblance of the adapted design
The degree of family resemblance of the adapted and unadapted homepages was
assessed by its most direct and objective measure (this measure is also know as
‘central tendency,’ and was originally devised by Barsalou, 1985). This measure
is based on the pairwise comparisons between a number of objects, based on their
subjectively rated similarity. With n objects, the number of pairwise comparisons
equals n(n À 1)/2. A measure of family resemblance can then be calculated on the
basis of these pairwise comparisons, as the average similarity score of one object
with all other objects. In this way, this measure expresses the degree in which each
object of a certain family of objects resembles the other objects in that family,
based on a subjective, non-analytical perception of similarity.
To arrive at an estimate of the family resemblance of the German and Spanish
adapted and unadapted homepages, the homepages have to be compared to
existing homepages from local small and medium sized ICT companies in
Germany and Spain. For this purpose, eight additional German and eight additional
Spanish homepages were included in the study (these homepages were randomly
selected from 40 newly searched homepages in Germany and Spain). In
this way,twosetsof tenhomepages were created,one German, the otherSpanish,
eachcontainingtwo created homepagesand eight existing ones (see Appendix B).
With ten homepages in a set, 45 pairwise comparisons can be made between the
homepages. However, a small pretest with three students revealed that the pairwise
comparison between the adapted and unadapted homepage was problematic,
because students noticed that the two homepages were by the same
company, and this made them more aware of these homepages and also overrate
the difference between them. For this reason this comparison was taken out, leaving
44 pairwise comparisons to be rated on similarity.
Next, 20 European (non-German/non-Spanish) students rated the degree of
perceptual similarity between the 44 pairs of German homepages; another
20 students rated the 44 pairs of Spanish homepages. Participants sat in front
of two computer screens placed next to each other. Each screen showed an
open Internet Explorer window with the Favourites menu opened in the left
part of the window. The Favourites menu contained links to each of the ten
homepages in the form of a designated letter. Participants also received
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 467
a booklet with each of the 44 pairs of homepages depicted as little (5 by 4 cm)
screenshots and with each homepage coded by the same designated letter as in
the Favourites menu. Participants then opened each pair of homepages on the
computer screens, following the examples depicted in the booklet. After participants
checked that they had opened the correct homepages, they rated
the overall similarity between each pair on a 7-point rating scale (ranging
from ‘no resemblance at all’ to ‘very high resemblance’). Participants rated
22 pairs in this way, had a short break, and then rated the remaining 22 pairs.
Based on these pairwise comparisons, the family resemblance of each homepage
of the set can be calculated as each homepage’s average similarity to the other
homepages in the set. For the ten German homepages, the measure of family resemblance
ranged from 3.00 to 3.97. For the eight existing German homepages,
the average family resemblance equalled 3.56. The family resemblance of the
adapted homepage was high, but it did not differ significantly from this average
score (M ¼ 3.93; t(19) ¼ 1.13, p ¼ .271). However, the family resemblance of
the adapted homepage differed significantly from that of the unadapted homepage
(M ¼ 3.00; t(19) ¼ 6.16, p < .001). The family resemblance measures of
the ten Spanish homepages ranged from 4.14 to 2.69. The average family resemblance
of theeightexisting homepagesequalled 3.52. Again, asintended, thefamily
resemblance of the adapted homepage was high but did not differ significantly
from the average family resemblance (M ¼ 3.69; t(19) ¼ .691, p ¼ .498). Again,
the family resemblance of the adapted homepage differed significantly from that
of the unadapted homepage (M ¼ 3.19; t(19) ¼ 2.83, p < .05).
3.4 Conclusion Study 1
Study 1 shows that the website manipulations successfully led to the creation
of adapted German and Spanish homepages that resembled typical German
and Spanish industry styles in web design, and led to unadapted homepages
that were significantly less typical of German and Spanish web design. This
result has been achieved by following a method for adapting designs to a local
industry style, in the form of a set of procedures that help designers to translate
a particular value orientation of a local industry into a set of directions for
designing culturally adapted products. Having established this, the article
now turns to testing the effect that the adapted homepages might have on
user attitude and trust.
4 Study 2
Study 2 addresses the question of whether a better understanding of industry
styles will help create culturally adapted homepages that are acceptable to
users in a local setting in terms of their initial attitude and trust. With regard
to the effects of adapted versus unadapted homepages, the theory of shared
values (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) predicts that trust will be higher and attitudes
will be more positive for adapted homepages than for unadapted ones, and
therefore we will test:
468 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
H1: Homepages that are culturally adapted to a local industry style will be
perceived as more trustworthy than unadapted homepages.
H2: Homepages that are culturally adapted to a local industry style will
generate a more positive attitude than unadapted homepages.
4.1 Method Study 2
Study 2 was an experiment that compared four different groups, based on two independentvariablesthatwerecrossedina(2Â
2betweensubjects)factorialdesign:
 Adaptation of industry style, with two conditions: adapted, unadapted
 Target country, with two conditions: Germany, Spain
The 97 participants that took part in the study were 55 German business students
in Germany from the University of Dortmund and 42 Spanish business
students from the ESADE business school in Barcelona. All participants were
of German/Spanish nationality, and had practically always lived in Germany/
Spain. Business students were chosen because company purchasers of the
product advertised by the homepage in the study typically have a business
background and often are junior trainees. Within each country, participants
were randomly assigned to either the adapted or the unadapted homepage
condition. In Germany, 31 participants viewed the adapted homepage and
24 participants viewed the unadapted homepage. In Spain, 24 participants
viewed the adapted homepage and 18 participants viewed the unadapted
homepage.
As an introduction to the study, participants were told that they were taking
part in a company test of different versions of a new homepage. They then
read a scenario that asked them to imagine that they were employees of
a mid-sized company that was responsible for purchasing the type of software
product offered on the homepage. Each participant then viewed the (adapted
or unadapted) homepage at their own pace, and filled in a short questionnaire.
The questionnaire contained statements on which participants could agree or
disagree on a seven-point scale ranging from À3 (does not apply) to þ3
(applies). The first statements were about the trust in, and attitude towards
the homepage, based on previous work by Fogg et al. (2001), McKnight
and Chervany (2001), and Schlosser et al. (2006). Homepage trust was assessed
by three statements. The first two measured trustworthiness: ‘I have trust in
the homepage’; and ‘The homepage comes across as credible to me.’ The third
statement measured the expertise, or ability component of trust: ‘The homepage
comes across as professional to me.’ Respondents’ attitude towards the
homepage was measured with the statement: ‘Personally, I find the homepage
appealing’.
The questionnaire further included a number of statements that were derived
from a small qualitative pilot study with 10 student participants from the
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 469
University of Hamburg, who were asked to compare the adapted and unadapted
homepage (both in the German language). These interviews revealed
higher levels of trust and a strong preference of German participants for the
adapted, German styled homepage, and they provided a number of reasons
for this. These reasons are related to the differences created between the German
and Spanish industry styles, and can be seen as indicators of cultural
markers that represent the various aspects of an industry style, as noted by
users. As such, they can underlie the hypothesised effects, and mediate in
the relation between homepage adaptation on one hand, and trust and attitude
towards the homepage on the other. On the basis of this pilot study, four indicators
of cultural markers were included in the questionnaire, each measured
by one statement:(1) ‘The ratio of visual to textual elements appeals to me;’ (2)
‘The visuals for this type of website appeal to me;’ (3) ‘The design of the homepage
suits a business software product well;’ and (4) ‘On the basis of the homepage,
I expect that it will be easy to find information on the website.’ All
statements were measured with 7-point scales, The questionnaire items and
scenario text were made in a German and Spanish version, created by following
the same procedure of translation and back-translation as described in
Study 1.
4.2 Results and discussion Study 2
First, homepage trust was established as a composite variable, based on the
average of the three trust statements (Cronbach alpha was .77 and .74 for
the German and Spanish sample respectively). This means that the joint effects
of adaptation of industry style and target country on homepage trust could be
investigated by a single ANOVA. A second ANOVA was carried out to assess
the effects of adaptation of industry style and target country on attitude towards
the homepage (as measured by a single statement). These two ANOVAs
were carried out again, but now with gender and age included as covariates, to
find potential complications in the hypothesised effects. There were no significant
gender or age effects, so these variables are not discussed further. Unless
otherwise specified, in all reported ANOVAs df ¼ 1, 93.
Hypothesis 1 states that adapted homepages will be perceived as more trustworthy
than unadapted homepages. This is exactly what happened: both in
Germany and Spain the homepage that was adapted to the local industry style
was trusted the most (see Figure 1 left). This is confirmed by the ANOVA on
trust, which yielded a significant interaction effect of adaptation to industry
style by target country (F ¼ 16.59, p < .001). As predicted, the German style
homepage was trusted more in Germany, and the Spanish style homepage was
trusted more in Spain. Separate directional t-tests in both countries confirm
this (Germany: Madapted ¼ 1.82 vs. Munadapted ¼ 1.42; t(53) ¼ À1.71,
p < .05; Spain: Madapted ¼ 1.85 vs. Munadapted ¼ .94; t(40) ¼ 4.51, p < .001).
No significant main effects were found, so across the two countries, and across
the two industry styles no differences were found in the general level of trust.
470 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
Hypothesis 2 states that adapted homepages will generate a more positive attitude
than unadapted homepages. The results also confirmed this hypothesis:
in Germany and Spain the homepage that was adapted to local industry style
generated the most positive attitude (see Figure 1 right). The ANOVA on attitude
towards the homepage also yielded a significant interaction effect of adaptation
to industry style by target country (F ¼ 38.32, p < .001). As predicted,
the German style homepage was liked best in Germany, and the Spanish style
homepage was liked best in Spain). Again, separate directional t-tests in both
countries confirm this (Germany: Madapted ¼ 1.23 vs. Munadapted ¼ 0.63;
t(53) ¼ À1.60, p < .05; Spain: Madapted ¼ 2 vs. Munadapted ¼ À0.44;
t(40) ¼ 8.99, p < .001). In addition to the hypothesised interaction effect the
ANOVA also showed a significant main effect of adaptation of industry style
(F ¼ 14.05, p < .001). Calculated over both countries, the homepage that was
adapted to the Spanish industry style (M ¼ 1.31) was more positively evaluated
than the one that was adapted to the German industry style (M ¼ .39).
The effects of cultural adaptation on the indicators of cultural markers are
shown in Table 2. These effects are similar to the effects reported on trust
and attitude towards the homepage: the culturally adapted homepages scored
higher on all four cultural markers, both in Germany and Spain. This also
implies that the German preferences for the four cultural markers were the
reverse of that in Spain, because the adapted style in each country was the
same as the unadapted style in the other. Four separate ANOVAs were carried
out and these confirmed the interaction effect between industry style and target
country on the indicators of cultural markers. Thus, in both countries the ratio
between visual and textual elements was best liked for the homepage that was
adapted for their country (F ¼ 19.16, p < .001). This was also true for visuals
appeal (F ¼ 57.18, p < .001) and homepage suitability (F ¼ 27.10, p < .001).
Figure 1 Cultural adaptation to industry style  target country interaction effects on homepage trust and attitude towards the homepage in
Study 2
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 471
For the ease of finding information the mean scores showed the same pattern,
but only a marginally significant interaction effect was found (F ¼ 3.29,
p < .08).4
4.3 Conclusion Study 2
Homepage adaptation had a clear and positive effect on the trustworthiness
for users (Hypothesis 1) and on user attitudes towards the homepage
(Hypothesis 2). In addition, German as well as Spanish participants believed
that: (1) their adapted homepage had a more appealing ratio between
visual and textual elements; (2) the visuals on their adapted homepage were
more appealing; (3) their adapted homepage suited a business software
product best; and (4) it would be easier to find information on their adapted
website.
5 General discussion
This paper started with the observation that the best way to investigate the
value-expressive character of industry styles is comparatively, based on an
analysis of how industries from different countries operate, based on different
value orientations. The procedure for this analysis can be regarded as a method
for designing artefacts within a particular industry style, and the criterion for
the success of this method is that of family resemblance: is the new design perceived
as similar to other designs from a local industry?
Study 1 presents a stepwise procedure that can be followed to design according
to a local industry style. The study focuses on web design, but given its more
general theoretical underpinning it should be applicable to other design disciplines
as well. The procedure laid out in Study 1 departs from the particular
value orientation of a country in question, and knowledge of how different
value orientations of countries are expressed in the design of the web pages
in those countries. Based on these two sources of information and an analysis
of existing websites of a particular local industry, a set of cultural markers can
Table 2 Mean values for the indicators of cultural markers in the adapted and unadapted conditions in Germany and Spain in
Study 2 (n [ 97)
Cultural Marker Germany Spain
Adapted a
Unadapted b
Adapted c
Unadapted d
Ratio visual/textual elements 1.45 1.00 1.29 À.39
Appeal visuals 1.42 .88 1.83 À.78
Homepage suits a business software product 2.07 1.58 1.54 À.06
Easy to find information 1.84 1.58 1.88 1.28
a
German language, German industry style.
b
German language, Spanish industry style.
c
Spanish language, Spanish industry style.
d
Spanish language, German industry style.
472 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
be identified that denote the industry style. Study 1 also shows that the procedure
of adapting web pages to a local industry style is successful in that it leads
to designs of new web pages that resemble existing web pages of a diverse range
of companies within a particular local industry. Given the implicit nature of
many of such cultural markers, the design effort was strongly supported by
the comparative character of the analysis and its interpretation of differences
between countries in terms of the underlying values they express. This provided
an understanding of the reasons behind the design guidelines and helped
in the design of the homepages from a local perspective, while avoiding to just
copy from local example.
In the development of the culturally adapted homepages in Study 1, we did not
make a strict distinction between the form and content in the design of the
homepages. This might seem strange if one were to define style as art and
design historians have done in a distant past, namely as the formal aspects
of design (the ‘how’), distinct from functional or content aspects of design
(the ‘what’). However, later definitions of style, such as the one provided by
Ackerman (1962), describe style as the outcome of a process, which can be retraced
both in an artefact’s structural (form) and functional (content) characteristics.
In practice as well, and especially when departing from the
value-expressive cultural markers described in Study 1, it turned out to be
an impossibility to design the structural qualities of the homepage without
changing the functionality or content at the same time. The stronger textual
focus, smaller banners, and use of scroll bars in the German industry style
are intrinsically linked to the (value-expressive) need to be comprehensive
and put all information on a single, impressive page. Likewise, the stronger visual
focus, larger banners, and simpler graphic layout in the Spanish industry
style are linked to the (value-expressive) need to appear well-connected and
fashionable, while still being affordable.
Study 2 shows that the cultural adaptation of web design to local industry
styles is the advised practice: cultural adaptation had a clear and positive effect
on the level of trust and the attitude of users. Furthermore, both German and
Spanish participants find the homepage that is adapted to their culture better
in terms of its ratio between textual and visual elements, its visual appeal, its
suitability for a business software product, and the ease of finding information
on it. However, the adapted homepages for the two countries differ widely on
these criteria. For example, the preferred homepage in Germany contains a lot
of text and few visuals, whereas the preferred homepage in Spain contains little
text and many visuals.
Given these diametrically opposed judgements of the indicators of cultural
markers in Germany and Spain, the question arises to what extent differences
in the value orientation between the countries also leads to differences
in the perception of a website. For larger cultural differences, such as those
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 473
between western and Asian cultures, previous research has shown marked
differences in the perception of visual material. For example, Chinese, Japanese
and Korean people were found to perceive visual material holistically
(paying attention over a more dispersed area of a picture), while Americans
of European descent perceived this material analytically (paying attention to
a few focal areas in the picture) (Ji, Peng, & Nisbett, 2000). A recent study
on cultural differences in website perception between South Korea, China,
and the United States has corroborated these findings with eye tracking
data, with Koreans and Chinese having a more holistic viewing pattern
over a website than Americans (Dong & Lee, 2008). If such differences of
perception also exist between countries as near to each other as Germany
and Spain, then this would allow for a more precise interpretation for the
effects that we found.
On a wider scale, there might be a contribution of this work to the literature
on style, both in art and design. This literature has for the most part
focused on competitive motives for style production. Artists, designers, and
the companies they work for are thought to produce styles that, according
to Baxandall (1980: p. 121), tend to be ‘showily skilful’ in order to distinguish
themselves from competitors in the market through other means than
a low price, or exclusively held connections or information. However, for
many, often smaller companies in industries such as the one studied in
this article, industry styles have arisen more or less spontaneously, up
and above the competitive brand styles of the individual companies that
make up the industry. In our case of the different styles of local ICT industries,
it is more likely that the basis for local style production was communal,
rather than competitive. According to a recent book of McCloskey on
the virtues of capitalist societies (2006: p. xiii), companies thrive in ‘ethical
soil.’ Her argument is that companies in successful industries do not only
base their efforts on notions of competition and survival, but also on notions
of collegiality, trust, and optimism. A local industry style might
thus reflecting the more communal values that are shared by companies
in a local industry, as expressed by a shared set of practices and style of
design.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Brian Joseph at ConnecTUX for his help in creating the
homepages, Dani€elle van der Ende and Henk Schaap (Delft University of Technology),
Jorge Montana, Ravi Swarup, and Paritosh Srivastava (ESADE,
Barcelona), and Hartmut Holzm€uller and Cengizhan Y€uel (University of
Dortmund) for their support in data collection. We further thank Frederic
Brunel (University of Boston), Ed Nijssen (Eindhoven University of Technology),
and Oscar Person (Delft University of Technology) for their comments
on earlier drafts of this paper.
474 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
Appendix A
Design style elements used to construct country-specific
homepages in Study 1
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 475
Appendix B
Homepages of the German and Spanish ICT-SMEs used in
Study 1 and their family resemblance scores
Family resemblance scores
I 3.97
J (adapted) 3.93
D 3.89
G 3.62
F 3.52
A 3.42
E 3.35
B 3.13
H 3.04
C (unadapted) 3.00
476 Design Studies Vol 32 No. 5 September 2011
Family resemblance scores
I 4.14
J 3.81
B 3.72
H (adapted) 3.69
C 3.61
G 3.54
A 3.32
E 3.21
D (unadapted) 3.19
F 2.69
The cultural adaptation of web design to local industry styles 477
Notes
1. Present address: Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology,
Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Tel.: þ31 40 2473601.
2. It could be argued that industry styles find their expression in a concerted effort of different
design disciplines (such as web design, product design, graphic design), similar to
how some authors have stressed that brand styles are expressed over different design disciplines
(Schmitt, Simonson, & Marcus, 1995). However, as we argued in Section 1,
industry styles are different from brand styles, and it is unlikely that designers from different
disciplines coordinate their efforts to create synergistic effects in the expression of
an industry style. On the other hand, with any given product, the design effort in one discipline
often represents or refers to a design effort in another discipline. For instance, the
physical product is often portrayed on the website and package, a manual can schematically
draw out what can be seen on an interface, etc. This can induce designers to create
some connections between design disciplines in the expression of an industry style. However,
it is a matter of debate how loose these relations are, and whether the style of websites
in an industry is separate from the styles of products, packaging, interfaces, and
manuals in that industry.
3. Web design is two-dimensional, and shares this with graphic design and some forms of
art. The two-dimensional character of Web design may allow more easily for formal
comparisons of designs in terms of their underlying style. At the same time, it might endanger
the correspondence with the literature on styles of three-dimensional objects, such
as in product design and architecture, discussed in the previous section. However, we
note that previous work on industry styles, even if applied to three-dimensional objects,
has typically been two-dimensional in nature. Cross (2007) noted how much of the work
on shape grammars in architecture has focussed on formalising two-dimensional representations
of buildings, and a scan of the work on visual brand identity and shape grammars
in product design shows that, here too, the majority of studies have investigated the
two-dimensional, ‘graphic’ representation of products from a single (side or frontal)
viewpoint.
4. Because the pattern of significant effects on the four cultural markers was similar to that
found on homepage trust and attitude towards the homepage, additional tests were carried
out to test whether the cultural markers mediate e and thus are responsible for e the
positive influence of adaptation to local industry style on local users’ trust and attitude.
Following a three-step mediation testing procedure outlined in Baron and Kenny (1986),
it appeared that the positive influence of adapting a web page to a local industry style on
user trust is fully explained by an improvement to the ration of visual/textual elements,
and by enhancing the impression for local users that the homepage suits a business software
product. For attitude towards the homepage, the positive influence of adapting
a web page to a local industry style is for the largest part explained by an improvement
to the ratio of visual to textual elements, and by enhancing the visual appeal of the homepage
to local users. Thus, the positive influence of adaptation to a local industry style on
local users’ trust and attitude can be seen as indirect; the influence is brought about via
these indicators of the cultural markers.
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