Buddhist website

The approaching exploratory conduct will identify how the multimedia factors contributing to gentle-Computer Interaction (HCI) graphic usage, audio/ photo usage, merchandise section, etc. affect siamese connection substance abusers attitude toward Buddhistic website. The dissertation as easily as seeks to determine whether the abovementioned factors make user to have either positive or negative or abstracted attitude toward the site. The study will employ a two-part qualitative methodology, and the results, it is hoped, will lead to more sure policies for the assessment of Siamese users attitude toward Buddhist websites.This dissertation will employ heuristic rule and field interrogation methodology to per kind a high-level ethnic analysis on Website function for the purposes of future research. The analysis of socio-economical and heathen issues ( holiness, Human-Computer Interaction, e-commerce, ethnography) relating to Website design is especially valuable from the perspective of the Siamese-speaking Buddhist audience. Future research on the matters stated above is expected to clarify what kind of information people from the particular cultural region expect and how it should be designed.Literature Review Mayhew once comp ared a website to a book which anyone can screening on The World replete(p) Web (WWW) which is a repository of public information and transactions created by the public and accessible to the public via the lucre (Mayhew, 2003, p. 3). The characteristics of the WWW are tensely linked to the ones of the website. Any website incorporates multimedia data such as text, static art, sound, animation, movie clips and practical(prenominal) spaces arranged as interactive multimedia system documents.These are the documents that contain links to other(a) pages of information (Dodge & Kitchin, 2001, p. 3). The key issue about a website is its interactive, multimedia and hypermedia nature. The present research should be inevitably w rapped around the principles of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), user interface (UI) design, website usability engineering, and their influences on the website users. Alty defined the goal of HCI as the efficient transfer of information between persons and computers (2003a, p.100). According to Alty, HCI is a generic wine term that describes all the activities concerned with the research, design, analysis, development, implementation and evaluation of the interactions across the interface between computer applications and humanity beings (often called users or operators) who are interacting with the application. (Alty, 2003b, p. 228) An authentic website should be progressed according to the principle of user-centered design.It means that the needs, capabilities and limitations of the intended users should be properly satiaten into account during the design process (Alty, 2003a, p. 100). Among the Internet user interface capabilities and constraints affecting users perception s Mayhew listed modem speed, browser capabilities, browser controls and interpreters, installed associate applications or plug-ins, windowing, direct manipulation, and color (2003, p. 11).Within the stage setting of HCI, a website utilizes widening (text, graphics, sound, music, speech, color, animation, still pictures, moving video) and input (text keyboard, handwriting, communicate mouse, pen, dataglove, eye-movement, audio voice or sound) media to produce an effect on the user. Most literature investigates the tokens of user-friendliness in go through to a website (Mayhew, 2003 Mayhew & Bias, 2003 Opaluch, 2003 Boardman, 2004). Acknowledging the importance of this concept, Kurosu (2003) relied on cultural aspects of web usability such as cultural variety and depth of socialisation (p.48). The researcher utilized Suzukis (1997) definition of the civilization as the response build shared by rough specific group of people that is shaped through interaction with the environm ent (Kurosu, 2003, p. 48) holding the response pattern as how people will interact with the Website, and interaction with the environment as the interaction with the Website through the PC environment, including the browser. Laney (1998) in his investigation of sacred Christian Web sites relied on the Media System Dependency as well as uses and gratifications perspectives.Some researchers (Weeks & Goodman, 2003 Proctor & Vu, 2003) investigated HIC within the context of human information processing and perceptual-motor behavior, whereas the other group of scholars (van der transmute & del Carmen, 2003 Yoshikawa, 2003) emphasized the mental modeling as the core of HCI. Finally, Brave & Nass (2003) researched emotional implications of human-computer interaction. There is also a considerable body of research (Mayhew & Bias, 2003 Carey, 2001 Steinbock, 2000 Varey, 2001) dedicated to the issues of e-commerce and marketing relating to websites.Taken into account the field of the present research, reaction of Thai users towards Buddhist websites, the abovestated mechanisms and structures of HCI with a stress of user-friendliness should be analyzed within the apparitional and cultural context. The relation to culture in terms of geographical location is distorted and made complex within the WWW context (Couldry & McCarthy, 2004 Miller, 2004 Dodge & Kitchin, 2001 Kurosu, 2003). Geographical boundaries (the areas where people confess Buddhism, Thailand as a state unity) do not approve with cultural zones (Thai cultural identity) and virtual areas (the WWW).On the one hand, Thailand is ready to enter the global community with its rather genuine media network (Hamilton, 2002 Mccargo, 2002). On the other hand, the Thai subject field cultural identity is of introvert type with its program line of distinctiveness in relation to a powerful external domain of others (Hamilton, 2002, p. 153). One should also take into consideration the cultural elements constituting the religion of Buddhism. Haynes (2003) stated that over 90 per cent of the Thais are Buddhists.In Thailand Buddhism is the sasana pracham chat, that is, the inherent national religion and constitutes an ideological basis and political legitimacy for the state (Haynes, 2003, p. 365). However, Haynes (2003) noted that the role of the state religion is flexible and open to debate (ibid. ). Swearer emphasized the unusual orientation of Thai Buddhism towards the cult of relics, images, icons, and amulets (2003, p. 10). The religion in Thailand became more secular and commercial (ibid. ).The discussion seems especially concerning when religious issues are projected onto the virtual reality in the form of a religious website. Miller & Slater acknowledged the coming in concert of a widespread interest in the unearthly implications of the technology, found in some of the cyberutopian literature, together with an interest in the use of the Internet on the part of established religions (2000, p. 173). Laney (1998) noted that the simplification of web technologies and, thus, their cheapening contributed to the proliferation of religious websites.Unfortunately, the accessible literature concentrated on Christian websites with no comparison to other confessions. Last (2005) provided an arouse statistics on the Christian websites in regard to the goal of the website users in their accessing the religious websites. According to the source, 32 part of the web-surfers are interested in religious news, 17 percent search for places to worship, 14 percent conception religious group meetings via the Internet, and 7 percent donate to charity with the help of the WWW.Besides, 11 percent of Internet users download spiritual music, 35 percent send online greeting cards, and 38 percent email spiritual messages. Unfortunately, the statistics is rather modest in regard to Buddhist websites. Within the Thailand context, Hachigian & Wu observed such HCI paradoxs as the need of IT acces s in rural areas where most of the population lives, lack of literacy in English/lack of Thai content, incompatible systems in different parts of the government, and inadequate training of officials (2003, p. 88). Most of the Buddhist websites found by a plain search via search engines (Yahoo, Google, etc.) are written in English. Therefore, the present investigation is associated with difficulties in locating authentic sites for analysis. Problem definition It is true that literature about the WWW and general principles of website user interface (UI) design has grown lately. However, religious usage of websites is significantly underexplored. It is especially evident in regard to non-Christian religious websites. Religious website usage may contribute positively to the body of scholarly research on the motivations for religious Web use. The media being studied are Buddhist religious sites on the World Wide Web.Large investments are being made into the construction and development o f religious websites on the Internet. A great harmonize of Buddhist websites are written in English and seeks to meet cultural expectations of the Westerners. Laney (1998) once defined the problem for his investigation of Christian websites as the poorly researched motivations of the English-speaking visitors. The American scholar would be astonished at the black hole in regard to the motivations of Thai-speaking web-surfers whose driving desires and emotions relating to Buddhist websites are unexplored even to a greater extent.The present project seeks specifically to provide an exploratory study of Buddhist Thai-speaking website users and their motivations for using the religious Buddhist websites. Cultural theory as well as Mental Models theory and HCI theory construct a complex framework important for the present analysis. In order to investigate Thai users attitudes toward Buddhist websites the following theoretical framework was constructed. Three issues taken as independent variables are taken graphics usage, audio/video usage, and e-marketing strategies in regard to Buddhist religious items.The first two issues are the types of output media whose effect on the user has been empirically proved. The issue of e-marketing is still being explored mainly from the perspective of user-centered design. A lot of elements may enter this concept including technical (e. g. , modem speed), user-oriented input (text, gesture, audio media), cultural (language, religion, country/nation) and other issues. The aforestated independent variables are alleged(a) to affect (either positively, or negatively, or neutrally) the variable of website users perceptions.It is supposed here that graphics and multimedia elements do correlate with web-surfers emotions and attitudes. The second hypothesis is that religious background of a user (Buddhism) reinforces his/her positive/negative attitude toward Buddhist websites. In an effort to determine the presence/absence seizure of cor relation between website user design elements and Thai Buddhist users a revisit of previous implications of HCI and cultural paradigms is necessary. This research will attempt to provide a description of Thai Buddhism website usage.An additional purpose of this study is to identify the website design elements which positively/negatively affect the users of Buddhist religious websites. This study is an exploratory note in increase research on religious websites usage and the motivations for its use. Numerous studies will be compulsory to obtain sufficient knowledge to fully understand this audiences motivations and preferences for utilizing the most modern form of mediated religion. It is hoped that the present project will provide a starting point and contribute to the growing body of knowledge in regard to the Internet and its cultural and social significance.Bibliography 1. Dodge, M. & Kitchin, R. (2001) Mapping cyberspace. London, Routledge. 2. Mccargo, D. (2002) Media and pol itics in Pacific Asia. London, Routledge. 3. Boardman, M. (2004) The language of websites. New York, Routledge. 4. 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