Globalization, Localization etc

Globalization, Localization etc Taken from several sources

Globalization Outline • Bad Examples • Why Important • Issues • Principles • How to Do It – Tools, Lifecycle • WWW • Resources

Bad Examples – Excuse My French • Look at the menus • Look at the dialog box • Incomplete translation !

Bad Examples – We Are the World? • What do you mean that you don’t have a state? • What do you mean that you don’t have a zip code? • Some other countries use “postal code” • This is US-centric – especially if fields are required!

Bad Examples – The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire? • The user swears that this is really how you spell customize • Even within a given language – such as English – there are variations • British/Australians spell a lot of words differently than we do • More US-centricism • Good Example – Microsoft recognizes Catalan

Bad Examples – If the Shoe Fits? • That button fit the word “Preview”, but not “Vista Preliminar” • Some languages tend to take more letters than others in general • Some languages might not have exactly the right word and need a phrase • Oh, BTW – is “Scan” a Spanish word?

Why Worry About It? • Profits • Population • US – 300,000,000 • World – 6,000,000,000 • Growing World-Wide Market • Competition • But make sure business case exists • Public Relations • Legal Requirements

Levels of Globalization Concerns • Comprehensibility • Usability • Desirability • These move from easier to harder

Globalization Issues • special characters – e.g. ä, ñ, ø • Left-to-right versus right-to-left • Date and time formats • Numeric and currency formats • Weights and measures • Telephone numbers and addresses • Names and titles (Mr., Ms., Mme.) • ID numbers • Capitalization and punctuation • Sorting sequences • Icons, buttons, colors • Pluralization, grammar, spelling • Culture, Etiquette, policies, tone, formality, metaphors

Principles

Culture includes … • Surface – visible – including simple things like currency, date and time formats, and more complex – dress, family relationships • Unspoken rules • Unconscious rules

Format • Give users chance to express preferences for format for • dates, • time, • currency, • Numbers • Address • Phone numbers

Color • E.g. sacred colors vary • Meanings of Colors differ – see Table 10.2 on p 577 • Look out for color combinations associated with political movements

Metaphor • GUI / Direct Manipulation approach is based on analogy to real world objects • Danger for globalization – if the objects are not the same world-wide • E.g. mailbox icon, telephone • E.g. typewriter metaphor in word processing – but Japanese and Chinese rarely used • E.g. file folders don’t look the same in China, in India, think more in terms of bookshelf, books, chapters …

Symbols • Avoid use of pictures of sports equipment, national monuments, symbols that would be unfamiliar to members of other cultures • Symbols meaning may be culturally dependent • Be cautious with use of animals, religious symbols, national flags, colors, hand gestures, stereotypical people • Watch out for cultural expectations regarding gender, racial stereotypes etc • Avoid use of culture specific holiday symbols • Use ToolTips to explain any icons that could be ambiguous • Check more universal than X • Emoticons (such as  ) vary – e.g. Japanese (^_^)

Symbols • Consider using universal signs • Some (not all computer relevant) -

Sound • Be careful with sounds – consider possible meaning

Legal Environments • Laws differ from country to country • E.g. in some countries it is illegal to directly position your product against the competition

Unspoken Rules • E.g. Japanese find disembodied body parts unappealing (Marcus et al 1999)

Humor • Is very culturally dependent • May be dependent on language • Doesn’t tend to work well cross culturally

Language • Language can greatly affect the length of text. Save room • Modify keyboard mnemonics to fit target languages • It is difficult to handle translation if the program concatenates strings on-the-fly as the program is running • Use simple syntax – noun-verb-object • Use consistent terminology – makes for easier translation • Try to stay away from words with multiple meanings • Visual puns may not translate • Avoid difficult noun phrases (e.g. 3 nouns in a row) • Avoid abbreviations and acronyms • Avoid slang • Avoid use of letters in bitmaps and toolbar icons

Language • Avoid overly friendly style, which may be interpreted as condescending • Watch out for gender, racial, national stereotypes etc • If no translation exists in a language, use the original word • Layout should follow left-to-right vs. right-to-left vs. vertical pattern of reading • Microsoft Windows 2000/XP localization of Hebrew and Arabic handle right to left – but ensure that your application is “mirroring aware so that text is not “flipped” • Sorting sequences – where special characters, such as ñ, ä, å, ë, and even the Spanish ll, fit in alphabetical order • Remember that help files must be translated • Microsoft translates first to German, then Arabic, then Japanese

Examples • avoid culturally specific examples

Functional Requirements • May vary from location to location (e.g. need for user control and initiative may vary in different cultures)

Details, Details • When planning printed reports, consider European paper size (A4) • Are specified fonts available for wide range of languages?

Globalization in the Lifecycle • Starts user analysis – identifying user communities and their characteristics • Followed with identifying the requirements – what varies – and of those, what is important/ worthwhile • Include people internationally in feedback process • requirements determination • Usability inspection • usability testing • Beta testing • Ensure developers are familiar with globalization issues • Ensure test team can recognize globalization problems • Planning should specifically identify globalization impacts – to avoid surprises and cost-overruns later • Some effort produces more globalized result than no effort

What about the WWW? • Log files can show geographical distribution of current visitors • Usability testing can be done without leaving home • Can start site with language choice. E.g. http://www.yahoo.com/ • Language-specific start pages should have their own URLs • Also provide means to specify language on other pages • When showing times – give 1) where; 2) relationship to GMT; and 3) other known cities • Consider bandwidth • If e-commerce offerings differ from country to country – make sure user gets appropriate choices

Tools • Microsoft Locales – in Windows, • “a locale is a set of user preference information related to the user’s language, environment, and cultural conventions. This information is represented as a list of values used to determine the correct input language, keyboard layout, sorting order, and the formats used for numbers, dates, currencies, and time” • Windows 2000 and XP support 126 and 136 locales • Can specify user locale, input locale, and system locale • Windows User Interface can be displayed in different languages – 90% localized

Tools • VB, Visual C++, Java all provide some support • Unicode necessary to store larger character sets

Localizing • Ensure user interface text is isolated from code – put in files • Store multiple versions of same string if used more than one place • Avoid text in bitmaps and icons • Do not generate text strings on-the-fly • Test localized applications on all language variants

Resources - Corporate • Microsoft • http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/

Resources – Corporate Consultants • www.amanda.com/resources/HFWEB99/HFWEB99.Marcus.html • www.useit.com - Jakob Nielsen’s site – several pages relevant

Resources - Academic • www.acm.org/sigchi/bulletin/1996.3/international.html • http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff/coursenotes/CIS732/samplepro/user_interface_internationalizat.htm

Resources - Organizations • http://www.w3.org/International • http://Dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Globalization/

End Globalization

Globalization, Localization etc