| Abstract | It is easy to see that developing websites to be used by people who speak different languages or come from different cultural backgrounds can be a difficult challenge. It would be useful to have guidelines or models that will help design, create and evaluate websites for multicultural/cross-cultural use. There is growing literature on cross-cultural software and website design, both for "objective" features of cultural differences (such as the scripts and fonts people use, date formats, and the like) and for "subjective" features of cultural differences (such as how people react to color, the “busyness” of a website, and so forth). This paper attempts to describe some of the models being presented as useful for managing the “subjective” aspects of cross-cultural website design. Among the most important models being developed are <em>cultural dimension</em> (n-<em>factor</em>) models, <em>cultural marker</em> models, <em>cultural</em> behavior models and models based on <em>Activity Theory</em>.<br />We also discuss some evidence that culture is not as crucial to successful website design as one might imagine. |
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