Visual presentation and communication of Croatian academic Websites

Introduction. The aim of the research is to analyse and compare visual identity elements of Croatian academic Websites with ones of European countries using Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions. The purpose of the research is to point to the influence a culture has on the design of Websites. Method. Graphical elements of university home pages from Croatia and a sample of 10 European countries are compared using the visual content analysis method. Element frequency scores were correlated with indexes from Hofstede's Model of National Culture and interpreted on the basis of the existing literature using analysis of variance, independent T-test and chi- squared test. Analysis. Both quantitative (using SPSS) and qualitative analyses (with the custom-created Web application) were carried out on the data (1, 017 Websites). Results. Many graphic elements of visual identity are common among the academic Web pages in Croatia and Europe. In a comparison of Web pages' cultural characteristics and G. Hofstede's model between Croatia and other countries, results show a statistically significant correlation through all the dimensions between the countries, depending on each visual graphic element. Conclusions. Research results contribute to the body of theoretical and practical knowledge of visual communication. They also shed light on the influence of culture on visual communication in general and argue in favour of the fact that a visual communication, in order to be effective and informative, has to take into account underlying cultural and social premises that will influence creation and interpretation of Websites.