Quality is not only found in the level of expertise within the words of a translation, but also in the way it is presented – in the experience itself. For example, this article by John Yunker at UX Magazine brings up an important question in terms of website localization: how do international users find the version of a website that is localized for them?
The Global Gateway, or the language-selection portal, can come in a number of different formats: flags, drop down menus, automatic transferal and country codes (or IDNs). Yunker’s article goes very in-depth for each method, and any company thinking to internationalize their website should consider which method will work best with their current interface and their international goals. Here are my thoughts (and some elaboration) on his tips:
Flags are a dicey way to indicate a global gateway/language selection portal. How does one choose a flag to represent a language that is spoken in many different countries? I remember having a hard time during my stay in London when trying to book a trip to Spain because I kept looking for a U.S. flag (on a Spanish website) when typically English was represented by the U.K. flag. Understandable, but still troublesome for me (at the beginning). What would this mean to someone who spoke a different kind of Spanish? What would be a “good” flag for Arabic? Flags are so politically charged that they may confuse, if not offend, a visitor to the site.
Drop-down menus are fine, as long as they are clearly marked – in this case, a graphical representation would be useful. Putting an image of the globe next to a drop-down menu, for example, is a good indication of what that drop-down menu is for. Also, putting an arrow instead of “go” or “enter” on the button next to the drop-down menu (if there is a button) is clear indication to a non-English-speaking visitor of what that button does. The drop-down menu should be in a prominent place on every page of the website – there is no guarantee that a foreign visitor will be taken first to the home page of a site. If it must remain in English, the list should be purely alphabetical – thus no country feels less important than another.
Automatic transferal is handy, unless the user’s first language is not the same as the one spoken by the people in the location detected by the web. I encountered this in Japan – I was usually taken to the Japanese-language versions of sites, when I really wanted the English version. A way to mitigate this would be to have a splash page with a language-selection option (perhaps organized by continent, for fairness), and then have cookies to remember the user’s preferences, and thus bypass the splash page on future visits. However, this does not always work, especially when users set custom preferences on security (and cookies) which block sites from saving those details.
Country-specific addresses and Internationalized Domain Names, or IDNs, are another way to make each local site very distinct from the main page. For example, some countries, like Japan, have been experiencing a decline in IDNs, whereas in Russia IDNs are very popular. Country codes give credibility to local search engines, and give the feel of a truly “local” site to the user. Obviously, this would influence the decision on a Global Gateway when localizing into these two countries. Burton Snowboards is one site who went with the country code .jp, as opposed to Starbucks, which went with .co.jp. Both sites are interesting examples to look at in terms of how and what they localized, too.
In all of these cases, the language should be written in the same script/characters as it is where it is spoken (here is a good example of how confusing it can be when it isn’t). This comes back to the quality of the experience – the end goal for a Global Gateway should be for a user to access their localized website without having to think about it at all. In other words, the transition should be fluid. If the user has to spend time looking for a gateway, or is confused at all, their experience with your site worsens, and there is a loss of trust with that consumer, if not the loss of the customer overall.
Instead, Global Gateways should be welcoming, easy-to-use, and non-exclusive. Quality (in this case especially) should be about erasing all roadblocks to usability before they become apparent to the users. Many LSPs (including Wordbank) are offering consulting services to tackle these issues – and can work with your company to create a Global Gateway that will create the best user experience with your customers.
For more of John Yunker’s work, visit his website at: http://www.globalbydesign.com/
