HOME PAGE OF A LOCALIZED WEBSITE AS A DIGITAL GENRE

Abstract

The home page of a commercial website has been selected for analysis as it is the first page that a user of the Internet encounters when entering the URL of a particular company. The home page serves to navigate and inform about a company's products and/or services. The main purpose of navigation is to provide access to the site. Hyperlinks are aimed at structuring and detailing the content. The article analyzes home page of "Philips" website localized for the Ukrainian market as an example of a digital genre. The localization strategy and the result of its implementation were considered. Some minor structural mismatches of localization in two languages were detected and their influence on the navigation of the website was analyzed. Websites and web pages as digital genres are already established genres. They exist in parallel with traditional channels of communication (newspapers and television). Companies use websites, and primarily home pages, to provide access to key information about their activities and assortment of goods and services. The content of the home page aims to inform users and, through verbal and nonverbal means, encourage them to act. When localizing websites, companies are examining existing authentic pages to bring content structuring closer to existing established genres. On the one hand, a localized website should be structurally similar to an authentic one, so that interface is recognizable and predictable for its users, i.e. correspond to digital genre. On the other hand, originality is an essential prerequisite to distinguish from a large number of similar websites.