BACHELOR’S THESIS IN INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE, SPECIALISATION WEB CONTENT MANAGER AND DESIGNER, FACULTY OF LIBRARIANSHIP, INFORMATION, EDUCATION AND IT 2020 Cross-cultural design in wine destination websites Cultural sensitivity and motivations in UI through investigation of web interface design elements ANNA AHL OBUCINA © Anna Ahl Obucina Partial or full copying and distribution of the material in this thesis without permission is forbidden English title: Cross-cultural design in wine destination websites – Cultural sensitivity and motivations in UI through investigation of web interface design elements Author: Anna Ahl Obucina Completed: 2020 Abstract: 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. Keywords: Cross-cultural design, UI-design, localization, globalization, hedonic, wine tourism, culturability Table of contents 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT......................................................................................................... 3 1.3 AIM AND SCOPE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................. 4 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................... 6 2.1 GLOBALIZATION AND USER INTERFACE DESIGN (UI) ................................................................... 6 2.2 CULTURABILITY AND LOCALIZATION ........................................................................................ 6 2.3 HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS ...................................................................................... 8 2.4 THE SYNERGY OF CULTURE AND WINE TOURISM ...................................................................... 10 2.4.1 Tourism destination websites, motivations for wine tourism and hedonic aspects 11 3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................... 14 3.1 CULTURAL WEB INTERFACE DESIGN ELEMENTS........................................................................ 14 3.1.1 Visual representation ........................................................................................ 15 3.1.2 Color .................................................................................................................. 16 3.1.3 Links ................................................................................................................... 17 4 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ................................................................................. 18 4.1 RESEARCH SAMPLE CRITERIA ............................................................................................... 18 4.2 DESTINATION WEBSITE SAMPLES AND MARKET SEGMENTATION ................................................. 19 4.2.1 South Africa and the regions of Darling, Tulbagh and Swartland ..................... 19 4.2.2 The USA and the regions of Willamette Valley, Umpqua Valley and Columbia Gorge 21 4.2.3 France and the Bordeaux region ....................................................................... 23 4.2.4 Germany and the Rheingau region.................................................................... 25 4.3 WEB DESIGN ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................... 28 4.3.1 Units of analysis, variables of measurement and coding .................................. 28 4.4 GOOD RESEARCH PRACTICE ................................................................................................ 29 5 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ............................................................................................. 30 5.1 SCREENSHOTS AND EXAMPLES OF VISUAL REPRESENTATION ...................................................... 30 5.2 DARLING ........................................................................................................................ 31 5.3 TULBAGH WINE ROUTE ..................................................................................................... 34 5.4 SWARTLAND WINE AND OLIVE ROUTE ................................................................................. 36 5.5 HOCHHEIM AM MAIN ....................................................................................................... 39 5.6 RUEDESHEIM .................................................................................................................. 41 5.7 OESTRICH-WINKEL ........................................................................................................... 43 5.8 THE MEDOC ................................................................................................................... 45 5.9 GRAVES-SAUTERNES ......................................................................................................... 48 5.10 ENTRE-DEUX-MERS AND HAUT BENAUGE ....................................................................... 51 5.11 GORGE WINE ............................................................................................................. 53 5.12 UMPQUA VALLEY ........................................................................................................ 55 5.13 WILLAMETTE VALLEY ................................................................................................... 57 5.14 RECAP MARKETING SCOPES OF WINE DESTINATION WEBSITE SAMPLES .................................... 60 6 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 62 6.1 IDENTIFIABLE PATTERNS IN CULTURAL AND HEDONIC WEB INTERFACE DESIGN ELEMENTS ................. 62 6.2 IDENTIFIABLE PATTERNS AND MOTIVATIONS FOR THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE .................................. 67 6.3 RESEARCH ETHICS AND REFLECTION ON GOOD RESEARCH PRACTICE ............................................ 73 6.4 FUTURE RESEARCH ........................................................................................................... 73 7 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 75 APPENDIX A: CODEBOOK .................................................................................................... 81 1 Introduction This thesis focuses on localization, globalization and the identification of web interface design elements, or so-called cultural markers, in the context of wine tourism destination websites. The term localization, as used in this thesis, is based on the definition by Cyr and Trevor-Smith (2004), meaning that the design elements present on the user interface of a website should be adapted to fit the specific cultural locale of the target user. Cultural markers are based on Badre and Barber's (1998) definition as the design elements most likely to be preferred and prevalent within a specific culture, therefore having a great impact on the usability of the web interface. In this study, cultural markers are preferably mentioned as cultural web interface design elements or simply just web interface design elements. Wine tourism is a cultural activity involving hedonic motivations for undertaking these activities. Hedonics, in the context of wine tourism destination websites, is defined as the interface design elements that can help cater for appealing and enjoyable virtual experiences, hence motivating tourists to visit physically (Luna-Nevarez & Hyman, 2012, p. 94). The web interface design elements considered to be hedonic are visual appearance and color. Websites of destination marketing organizations (DMOs) as described by Rafetzeder