Apart from Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions discussed above, the concept of context is
also useful to identify web design strategies for cross-cultural websites. First used by Hall,
the expressions “high-context” and “low-context” are labels denoting inherent cultural
differences between societies (“Hall's cultural factors”, n.d.). High-context and low-context
communication refers to how much speakers rely on things other than words to convey
meaning. In a high-context culture, there are many contextual elements that help people
to understand the rules. As a result, much is taken for granted, but this can be very
confusing for people who do not understand the “unwritten rules” of the culture. In
general, cultures that favor low-context communication will pay more attention to the
literal meanings of words than to the context surrounding them.