What is it about?
Information architecture design [hereafter: IA] is one of the important elements of information systems development. Depending on the target audience and its conditions, this task may be more or less challenging. A particularly interesting group of recipients are Arabic speakers. In the face of the following changes and the growing demand from Middle East user groups, information architects need to familiarize themselves with the IA design principles for the Arabic-speaking user for professional reasons.
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Why is it important?
According to the latest report by Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives and Bayt.com, 47 million new Internet users in the Middle East region are expected to arrive by 2021. Besides, the changes introduced by the authorities of the Middle East countries focus on the latest technologies enabling the management of the state via the Internet and specially designed mobile applications. We can also add to this the extremely high level of information provided by society’s writers, which drives the development of solutions using digital technologies.
Perspectives
Users use digital media mainly to meet their information needs. These in turn shape the image and information content of websites and the demand for specific services within the information architecture. In cyberspace, websites from different cultures can be accessible in fractions of a second, but a website can only be considered useful if visitors can effectively obtain the information they are looking for. Websites should have a structure that takes into account the culture and cultural differences of their users in order to be able to provide information. Cultural differences directly affect the usability characteristics of the target audience, especially in web applications with universal themes. There is no such thing as a golden mean to design websites for users that works everywhere. That is why continuous education, awareness of cultural differences and, above all, curiosity about the world, which some developers of applications or websites, unfortunately, lack sometimes.
PhD Hanna Gawel
Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Wyzwania projektowania IA dla arabskojęzycznego użytkownika, Toruńskie Studia Bibliologiczne, October 2019, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika/Nicolaus Copernicus University,
DOI: 10.12775/tsb.2019.014.
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