Localization and Globalization

Designing applications for use in different languages and cultures present some special challenges to designers. Here again, however, consideration of command vectors can provide guidance.

Immediate vectors such as direct manipulation and toolbar butcons are idiomatic (see Chapter 20) and visual rather than textual. They are, therefore, capable of being globalized with considerable ease. It is, of course, important for designers to do their homework to ensure that colors or symbols chosen for these idioms do not have particular meanings in different cultures that the designer would not intend. (In Japan, for example, an X in a check box would likely be interpreted as deselection rather than selection.) However, non-metaphorical idioms should, in general, be fairly safe for globalized interfaces.

The pedagogic vectors such as menu items, field labels, ToolTips, and instructional hints are language dependent, and thus must be the subject of localization via translation to appropriate languages. Some issues to bear in mind when creating interfaces that must be localized include:

  • In some languages, words and phrases tend to be longer than in others (German text labels, for example, are significantly longer than those in English on average).

  • Words in some languages, Asian languages in particular, can be difficult to sort alphabetically.

  • Ordering of day-month-year and the use of 12- or 24-hour notation for time vary from country to country.

  • Decimal points in numbers and currency are represented differently (some countries use periods and commas the opposite of the way they are used in the US).

  • Some countries make use of week numbers (for example, week 50 is in mid-December), and some countries make use of calendars other than the Gregorian calendar.

Menu items and dialogs, when they are translated, need to be considered holistically. It is important to make sure that translated interfaces remain coherent as a whole. Items and labels that translate straightforwardly in a vacuum may become confusing when grouped with other independently translated items. Semantics of the interface need to be preserved at the higher level as well as at the detail level.




About Face 2.0(c) The Essentials of Interaction Design
About Face 2.0(c) The Essentials of Interaction Design
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 263

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