Cross-cultural design in wine destination websites : Cultural sensitivity and motivations in UI through investigation of web interface design elements

Sammanfattning: This thesis sets out to investigate hedonic and cultural web interface design elements present on wine tourism destination websites. The thesis focuses on explaining several cultural frameworks and especially the notion of localization, globalization, culturability, and cultural markers, the high/low context theory as well as tenets of hedonics in user interface design. The aim of the thesis was to develop a better understanding and knowledge about which localized design elements that exist and are important in the cultural context of wine tourism destination websites. Hence, the patterns found can help understand how to create and design websites that are culturally sensitive and globally congruent, thus meeting the needs and behaviors of users across different cultures and backgrounds. A web design analysis was conducted to answer the research questions and results were analyzed qualitatively. The results from the web design analysis indicate several similarities and differences found in web interface design elements between the investigated websites. The results found, indicate that the use of hedonic and cultural web interface design elements present on the interfaces investigated are highly context-dependent. Meaning that the websites are preferably considered being culturally dependent, and to a greater extent reflect and are used to motivate the cultural context examined and regional differences. Hence, the patterns found in web interface design elements are considered to be culturally sensitive to the context of wine destination websites and marketing aims of the websites investigated.  The findings can increase knowledge about hedonic aspects in cross-cultural design and can thus be used to help create culturally congruent and globalized interfaces for this specific context.