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India

A Prototype Analysis of the Indian Government Website

TECM5185 Informal Website Analysis K. Carlson 11/2009

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List of Figures

Fig 1 Top right links on Home page in English and in Hindi page 5

Fig 2 Bottom links on Home page in English and in Hindi page 5

Fig 3 Bottom links on content pages in English and in Hindi page 6

Fig 4 Bottom links on content pages in English and in Hindi page 6

Fig 5 Buttons on opening page of content pages in English and in Hindi page 7

Fig 6 Use of color on the site page 8

Fig 7 Use of hyperlinks on the site page 9

Fig 8 Use of search box on the site page 10

Fig 9 Prototype checklist page 11


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Web design on a global scale According to Kirk St. Amant in “A Prototype Theory Approach to International Web Site Analysis and

Design,” Web designers must “think in terms of a global audience” when designing websites (73).

Designers must study native websites and adhere to a country’s social and cultural mores when creating

websites for users in those particular countries. Because of its social and cultural diversity, I chose India

as my target country. I analyzed the official website of the government of India (http://india.gov.in) in its

English version and its native Hindi version to provide to following prototype analysis.

India at a glance India is fast becoming a center of business in the world. Its diverse culture makes it an exciting country to

study. In order to properly identify which elements of web design could accurately represent a traditional

Indian website, one must first understand the country and its people:

India has 22 national languages. Hindi is its official language, but Indians conduct business

transactions in Hindi and English.

India is a hospitality-driven culture. Indian people are very accommodating to their guests. They

are very open, and they conduct business in a relaxed setting. They shake hands, offer business

cards, and interact as people do in the U.S.

India has a family-centered culture and a male-dominated society. Arranged marriages are

common in India. Women are predominantly homemakers, but they are beginning to take on roles

that are more influential. For example, the current president of India is a woman.

India has many different religions, but Hindu is its major religion. Most Indians are highly

superstitious. Because India is so diverse, when conducting business in India, visitors should first

research the customs of the particular region and strictly adhere to them.

India has a caste system that clearly defines people’s roles in society. This hierarchical system is

religion-based. When conducting business in India, visitors must show respect to the most senior

person with whom they are doing business and use the proper title when addressing him or her.

India offers a wide variety of cultural and business opportunities and establishes itself as an

emerging place in the global market as a center of commerce.


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Prototype analysis of Indian websites According to St. Amant, an analysis of a website occurs at “two different levels of visual design” (83).

These levels are

the macro level, which looks at overall characteristics of the site, and

the micro level, which identifies specific characteristics of those devices found on the macro

level.

Macro level analysis Macro level analysis of the Indian government site shows striking similarities to U.S.-based websites.

This site is available in both English and Hindi. Both the English and the Hindi versions are almost

identical in structure and content.

Macro level characteristics

Macro level characteristics are as follows:

Menu bars

Buttons

Color

Hyperlinks

Body text

Search Engine

Images

All characteristics at the macro level are present on both the English and the Hindi versions of the Indian

government website.

Micro level analysis Micro level analysis of the Indian government website also shows similarities to U.S.-based websites. In

the following pages, I analyze each macro characteristic on a micro scale to determine the prototype

analysis of an Indian website.

Menu bars

Menu bars are present on the site. On the Home page, menu bars are text-based links in the top right-hand

corner of the page and on the bottom of the page. Images are not present in menu bars.


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The menu on the top right of the Home page links to the following (see Fig 1):

Site Map

Link to Us

Add to Favourite (sic)

Tell a Friend

Feedback

Contact Us

Fig 1 Top right links on Home page in English and in Hindi

The menu on the bottom of the Home page links to the following (see Fig 2):

About this Portal

Help

Terms of Use

Visitor Summary

Newsletter

Your Opinion! (notice the exclamation

point in both the English and the Hindi

versions)

Press/Media Coverage

Accessibility Statement

Fig 2 Bottom links on Home page in English and in Hindi

The bottom menu changes slightly from the Home page on the rest of the site (see Fig 3). Instead of links

to Visitor Summary, Newsletter, Your Opinion, and Press/Media Coverage, it includes the following

links, which are static throughout the rest of the site:

Home

About the Portal

Site Map

Link to Us

Add to Favorites (notice the spelling

change from the Home page)

Suggest to a Friend

Help

Terms of Use

Feedback

Contact Us

Accessibility Statement

Fig 3 Bottom links on content pages in English and in Hindi

As shown in the above figures, each site section also has an additional menu bar (located above the

bottom menu bar) that pertains to only that section of the site. The placement is static in all sections, but

the content changes.

In the content pages, menu bars are text-based links in a grey box near the top of the right-hand side of the

page. Each text link is prefaced by a different-colored bullet. These bullets are not clickable, but the text

is. The menu bar repeats on every page in the section (see Fig 4). This occurs on both the English version

and the Hindi version of the site.

Fig 4 Bottom links on content pages in English and in Hindi

Beneath each menu bar is another menu bar, shaded in a slightly darker grey, which links to a “How do

I?” section. The “How do I?” button is a clickable button. Beneath that is a blue box that contains a link to

the “Suggestion” area of the site. These aspects are also static throughout the content section of the site.


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Buttons

Buttons are present on the site. On the opening page of each section, users see two rows of buttons

pertaining to that specific section in the middle of the page. These buttons are static on all opening pages,

but the content changes for each section (see Fig 5).

Buttons on the site have the following characteristics:

They are round.

They have clipart pictures on them.

They are clickable.

They have clickable text beneath them.

Fig 5 Buttons on opening page of content pages in English and in Hindi

The clipart images on the buttons are section-specific and show images that pertain to that section. In

addition to these buttons above and the rectangular “How do I?” button mentioned earlier, other buttons

appear on the site (albeit rarely) which are not clickable; however, they contain clickable text and look

and act more like tabs than buttons.

Color

To understand why the Indian government site uses specific colors, one must first understand the meaning

of those colors. The site uses colors associated with the country’s flag and belief system. The background

is white, and the site uses the additional colors as accents and headers (see Fig 6). The following is a list

of major colors used on the site and their meanings:


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Saffron (orange)—the color of the top stripe on India’s flag is a sacred color in India and

indicates the strength and courage of the country.

Red—this color symbolizes purity and is often worn at weddings in India.

Green—the color of the bottom stripe on India’s flag represents the fertility and growth of India’s

land

Blue—the color of the chakra, or spinning wheel, in the middle of the flag, which represents the

Lord Krishna and is a sacred, calming color.

Fig 6 Use of color on the site

In addition to those colors, many other colors are used sparingly and usually are lighter or darker shades

of the above colors. Additionally, each of the sections uses a major color scheme, which repeats on all

pages within that section.

Hyperlinks

The site uses hyperlinks in lieu of buttons on most pages on the site. However, the site also employs

hyperlinks within text, albeit rarely (see Fig 7). These in-text hyperlinks have the following

characteristics:

They are blue.

They use mouse-over underlining.

They do not change color when clicked.

The link opens in a new window.

Fig 7 Use of hyperlinks on the site

In the above figures, I moused over the hyperlinked text and took a screen shot to show the underlining.

The underlining is not static.

Body Text

Figure 7 shows that the body text within the site is sparse. The English text is a readable sans serif font.

The text in Hindi appears to have the same kind of characteristics as the English text. Text sections have

headers that are in a bigger font size than the text. All text appears to have the same formatting throughout

the site. Some pages within the site are text heavy as compared to the rest of the pages on the Indian

government website, but they are still not as text heavy as U.S. websites.

Both the English and the Hindi sites have the text left justified, because in both languages, the reader

reads the text from left to right. The font color is usually black, sometimes blue, and rarely any other

color.

Search Engine

Both the English version and the Hindi version of the site use a search box. However, the search box is

only available on the Home page. The search box is in the upper right corner of the page directly below

the menu bar (see Fig 8).


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Fig 8 Use of search box on the site

The search box is very plain and does not have any logos or search engine affiliation. In that same area,

the site also contains a section where users can register or log in. Additionally, the site has a calendar,

which appears to be identical on both the English and the Hindi versions.

Images

The site uses images in buttons and in its patriotic logos (flag, chakra, etc). However, photographs are

rare on the site. When photographs are present, they are usually small, and they represent traditional

dress, customs, or activities, or they show traditional Indian icons, such as tigers, peacocks, and the

chakra. Women are rarely in photographs, but when they are, they are wearing traditional or conservative

clothing and interacting in cultural or “motherly” ways. Men are the prominent subjects of photographs,

and they are usually wearing traditional or business casual clothing and interacting during social or

business activities. Children are rarely in photographs, but when they are, their clothing styles mirror the

styles of the adults in gender and style. The photographs of children show them learning or interacting

during cultural activities.

The site uses graphics to call attention to cultural events and identify different sections of the website. The

images are most representational of the specific purpose of that particular section. For instance, the button

for the senior citizen section shows a clipart image of an older person (see Fig 5, above). The images are

clear, clean, and wholesome. Indian websites do not contain any provocative images.


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Menu Bar: Hypertext, Top right, Bottom center

Buttons: Rarely used, Identify sections, Some images, Some text Color: Traditional Indian colors and variations thereof, Sacred colors, Flag

colors, White backgrounds Hyperlinks: Usually in text, Sometimes in lists with non-clickable bullets,

Mouse-over underlining, Usually do not change color when clicked. Body Text: Black, Plain, Sans serif in English, Most sites available in English

and Hindi Search Engine: if present, on Home page

Images: Women and children in modest or traditional clothing, Men in business

or traditional clothing, People doing cultural or familial activities or learning situations, No provocative shots

Consistent use of the chakra symbol on most sites

Consistent use of the Indian flag if it’s a governmental site

Moving text, flashy icons rare

Indian government websites do not contain any external advertising. This website advertises itself and

sometimes a cultural or patriotic event. The site contains no flashing lights, no bells or whistles, or

anything gaudy or distracting. The site is very clean and organized (see Fig 6, above).

Prototype checklist for Indian websites

By establishing the above criteria as it pertains to this one site, I was able to compile a checklist of the

characteristics of Indian website design (see Fig 9).

Fig 9 Prototype checklist


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Once I compiled the checklist, I compared the list to other Indian organizational websites and found that

the sites all had similarities in their structures. While not all of the checklist items were present on every

site, the majority of the checklist items were present. The following list describes the findings:

All sites were simplistic and clean, but informative and well organized.

All sites were available in English and Hindi versions.

All sites rarely used photographs, but when they did, they were modest and appropriately cultural.

All sites had black text with few hyperlinks in text.

All sites had what I call “hyperlists,” lists of hyperlinked text that used non-clickable bullet points

to set links apart.

All sites had menu bars in similar locations with hypertext instead of buttons.

All sites used the same variations on the color scheme mentioned above. Prominent colors were

red, green, saffron, and blue. Backgrounds were usually white.

All sites contained body text. However, some sites contained a lot (by Indian standards) while

some sites contained very little. The amount of text depended on the subject matter.

While not all Indian websites employ all of the checklist items above, the similarities between them are

significant. Indian websites have a clean, organized appearance. The images are wholesome and religion-,

education-, or family-based. The text seems limited, but the information is substantial. Indian websites

combine function and design while adhering to India’s rich cultural and religious heritage.


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Works Cited

St. Amant, Kirk. “A Prototype Theory Approach to International Web Site Design.” Technical

Communication Quarterly 14 (2005): 73-91

http://india.gov.in. National Informatics Centre. 2005. Government of India under the aegis of

Department of Information Technology Ministry of Communications & Information Technology.

Oct 2009.

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