A case for design localization: Diversity of website designs in 44 countries

Manuel Nordhoff, Tal August, Nigini A. Oliveira, Katharina Reinecke

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Adapting the visual designs of websites to a local target audience can be beneficial, because such design localization increases users' appeal, trust, and work efficiency. Yet designers often find it difficult to decide when to adapt and how to adapt the designs, mainly because there are currently no guidelines that describe common website designs in various countries. We contribute the first large-scale analysis of 80,901 website designs across 44 countries, made available via an interactive web-based design catalog. Using computational image metrics to compare the ∼2,000 most visited websites per country, we found significant differences between several design aspects, such as a website's colorfulness, visual complexity, the number of text areas and the average saturation of colors. Our results contribute a snapshot of web designs that users in 44 countries frequently see, showing that the design of websites with a global reach are more homogenized compared to local websites between countries.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2018 - Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationEngage with CHI
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450356206, 9781450356213
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 20 2018
Externally publishedYes
Event2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: Apr 21 2018Apr 26 2018

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume2018-April

Other

Other2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2018
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period4/21/184/26/18

Keywords

  • Localization
  • Quantified aesthetics
  • Website design

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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