Internalisation
Versus Localisation
Internationalisation
means having a single design that can be used
worldwide and localisation means making an adapted
version of that design for a specific locale.
Localisation often involves translation whereas
Internalisation involves the use of simpler
language that non-native speakers can understand.
Designing
for Internationalisation
Avoid icons that can be offensive in other cultures.
Be aware of displaying time for real-time events.
It should always be made clear if the times
are AM/PM or the 24-hour system and which time
zone they refer to. Spell out the name of the
month in any dates. Other differences to watch
out for include punctuation, ($1,000 and €1.000),
the currency symbol and units of measurement
e.g. yards and metres.
www.tsanet.org
shows the local time in the context of the locations
of department offices,
allowing the user to easily know what time it
is in the department they wish to call.
International Inspection.
This involves having people from multiple countries
looking at your design to see if it would cause
any problems in their country. These people
should preferably be usability specialists.
Translated
and Multilingual Sites
Translate websites into the most commonly used
languages. Your server log could help determine
which countries have a substantial amount of
users.
Language
Choice
There are 3 common ways of implementing language
choices. These are (1) use a staging page (2)
have a language menu on the home page or (3)
have a language menu on all subsequent pages.
Only use a staging page if there is no default
language for the home page. List the name of
language in each country’s own language.
Ryanair’s Home
page provides language choices in each country’s
own language as shown above.
Multilingual
Search
Currently multilingual search requires the user
to enter synonyms of the desired search terms
in all the requested languages. It would be
better to have the computer automatically perform
multilingual searches by understanding the meaning
of the search terms in several languages.
Regional
Differences
Users should be made aware if you only are interested
in serving a local market. Different models,
prices or procedures for different countries
should be made clear to the users. Deal with
regional differences in the same way as language
differences and have a list of additional countries
on the home page, which the user can choose
from.
