Redesign of a Music-sharing Website Interface for Cross-cultural Users: Based on an upgraded version of the contents of a thesis for the award of a degree in Design at IIT Guwahati, India

Websites dealing with a global commodity such as music targeted at a global community of users often have to cross geographical and cultural boundaries of space and time. To become globally recognized, one such website - Muziboo.com, which provides a dedicated platform for upcoming musicians to upload their music and receive feedback, needed redesign. Redesigning this website catering to users across cultures would necessitate employing much more than conventional usability methods. It needs to follow the analysis of the total web experience of sites such as Youtube, MySpace and Facebook, wherein the users participate in content-creation as they would in Muziboo.com, despite some of these websites often not conforming fully to proven usability guidelines. Hence, for the redesign exercise, a much more flexible approach had to be undertaken. This book highlights the methodology and process of redesigning the Indian-based website Muziboo.com, taking into account the users located outside India. It became important to consider the needs, usage patterns and behaviours of a heterogeneous user base, bringing to the fore the importance of cross-cultural issues in usability.