Towards Conceptualization of Islamic User Interface for Islamic Website: An Initial Investigation

The Web phenomenon has increased the presence of the global audience of cultural diversity. To combat move
towards cultural uniformity due to globalization, effort
to preserve cultural identity needs to be addressed.
Empirical research on cultural aspects of user interface
has attracted significant research effort in this area.
However, the current literature does not exhibit significant work on the Islamic culture, which is rooted
in Islamic beliefs and values. The growing number of
Muslim population which is estimated about 2 billion
(Evans, 2005) with Internet penetration rate of more than 20%, warrants website designers to look into the Islamic culture perspective of website interface design. This study reports an initial investigation on the presence of Islamic identity, traits and usability in Islamic websites. An evaluation framework based on Wong (2004) model was adapted and incorporated with basic Islamic features. One hundred Islamic websites, chosen as samples for this study were taken from http://www.musalman.com/Top100/islamtop100_1.shtml.
The study revealed existence of inconsistent usage of
Islamic identity and traits that may lead to misrepresentation of Islam. Plus, nearly more than 50%
of the investigated Islamic websites have low usability
level. Thus, become indicators of the needs to conceptualize Islamic User Interface for Islamic website.