According to Firoozeh Karimi (2013), Nowadays, e-marketing through websites is one of the most essential factors in presenting new products to the consumers and potential buyers. So an effective website should consider understanding of interconnected business environment and intercultural or cross-cultural differences while it is presenting a product to the globalized marketing atmosphere.
The purpose of this study is to identify the cultural similarities and differences between Iran and Sweden in web design.In order to accomplish this goal, the writer used qualitative descriptive comparative inductive method through content analysis as primary and literature review as secondary data collection. As theoretical framework, the study is presented some definitions of Hofstede and Hall’s cultural dimensions. Besides, it defines some features of web design and the interrelation of cultural markers and web design’s features based on previous studies. The research is conducted through comparing websites related to the food industry from Iran and Sweden.The writer selects two beverage companies and two mineral water firms as the most common products in both countries.
The results revealed that the websites manifest some similarities in using images and colors as well as lay out presentation. They show many differences in corporate information, communication and language usage in their websites. The author believes in some limitations of the study such as lack of study in LTO dimension in Iran and lack of communication between the writer and either the selected websites’ web designers or customers which might affect the outcomes of the exploration.She trusts having the users and web designers as well as marketers’ perspectives will improve the result of the study. This study can be useful for both small and big companies to increase the public awareness of their existence in the recent world globalized marketing atmosphere.
Moreover, suggestions are given for future studies considering marketers, customers and web designer’s point of views to investigate in what extent the result will be different from the presented study.According to Naveed Anwar, Adam Kwoka (2012), World Wide Web (www) has achieved an important role in communication, information sharing and service delivery now-a-days. World Wide Web consists of millions of web sites and web based applications which are deployed and can be visited all over the world without the limitation of time and geographical boundaries. Web site usability, security and reliability consider some of the core aspects in designing of web sites.In this thesis, we explore possible tensions and tradeoffs between usability and security issues in web site design. We discuss web site usability issues in terms of technical and social aspects.
We discuss web site security in terms of usability and offer some recommendations for secure website design without compromising the web site performance. We also highlight the importance of ease of navigation and other aspects of user interface design. In order to explore these issues, we have chosen to review the related literature.We have also conducted interviews with professionals who are mainly concerned with web site usability. Two sample interviews are available at the end of this thesis report. According to Gabriel Nordeborn (2013), As the spread of the internet continues, more people than ever search for medical information online when in need of health advice.
Color is a prominent part of website aesthetics, and has been shown in the literature to have both positive and negative psychological effects.A total of 120 participants took part in the present study where the effect of the colors grey, blue, orange and red was tested on the task of searching for medical information online. An experimental website was manipulated with different color schemes, inspired by existing popular websites with the purpose of providing medical information online. Participants then used the website to find and comprehend information aboua fictitious disease.Overall, the results showed no statistically significant effect of website color on either ratings or time spent using the website. A three-way interaction between color, gender and ratings was found, where females rated the red website significantly higher than males on almost all dimensions.
The results are discussed in light of similar findings of the color red and its negative effect on males. Future research involving other areas where the potential effect of color might be of benefit is suggested.
