Website Design and Localisation: A Comparison of Malaysia and Britain

Abstract

This study aims to explore the local cultural values on Malaysian and British websites selected from different sectors. In recent years, a number of studies have addressed the issue of local culture in website design, but most of the studies have focused on USA representing western cultures, whereas Chinese and Japanese cultures have been the main focal point of Asian cultures. This study intends to fill this gap, focusing on less-debated cultures: Malaysia and Britain. It applies Hofstede’s individualism/collectivism, and power distance, and Hall’s high/low-context cultural dimensions, and analyses how these cultural values are reflected in Malaysian and British websites. A content analysis of the websites highlights considerable differences in representing local cultural values on the local websites.