Webupon

Human communication that doesn’t use words -smiles, frowns, carriage, human attributes of an official website, or how long a visitor keeps waiting are signs a successful business entrepreneur must interpret from customers, according to their geographical location in order to rake in sales worth millions of dollars from now!

These duties shouldn’t be left alone for only software or auto responders.

Carriage

As people from diverse cultures walk differently, negative reactions to another cultures carriage is inevitable. For instance, Arabs see the foot in general and the sole as unclean, showing the sole of the foot is an insult. Moreover, the American likes sitting around with the feet up on the furniture. Avoid photos of a pretty young woman with a laptop sitting feet high on your sales page if Arabs forms part of your potential audience.

Eye Contact

While American whites see eye contact as a sign of honesty, Koreans and Asians see prolonged eye contact as rude. In Muslim countries, women and men are not supposed to have eye contact. This miscommunication should be avoided while designing a webpage for multicultural participation. It’s so important, because people from other cultures are increasingly getting on the net.

Gestures

Birdwhistell reports that no gesture or body motion means the same in all societies. An American may nod to say yes, but a Bulgarian will nod heads to signify no and shake the head to say yes.

Gestures that mean approval in the US have different signals in other countries. In Website Design, human attributes should not be ignored. The “thumbs up” sign that says “good work” or “go ahead” in United States and Western Europe is a vulgar insult in Greece. The circle formed with the thumb and first finger that means ok in US is obscene in Southern Italy and says “you’re worth nothing” in France and Belgium.

Personal Time

Difference in time zones and how different societies keep time complicates international business and will influence how a website is setup. Businesses, government and schools in United States keep time by the calendar and clock; other cultures may keep time by seasons, moon, sun or internal “body clocks” or a personal feeling that “the time is right”. Africans in particular have what is referred to as “African Time” which is an allowable time to be late for a meeting or a business trip.

While designing your website, take into consideration that other cultures want to establish a personal relationship before they decide whether to do business with each other, but North Americans believe “time is money” and are often frustrated in negotiations with people who take a leisurely approach.

Colors

Colors also carry meanings in a culture. In the United States, mourners wear black to funerals, while brides wear white. In Japan, white is the color of death. If your website has any business to do with death or funerals, try to balance the color separation to be mutually acceptable by visitors to the site.

In Korea and Africa, red ink is used to record deaths but never to write about living people. In the United States, the first-place winner gets a blue-ribbon while in the United Kingdom, the first-place ribbon is usually red. Be mindful of colors when formatting.