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Developing content for a global audience
February 14th, 2006
Last Friday, I was lucky enough to be in Canberra to hear Richard Ishida talk about internationalization. The presentation was fantastic and really extended my understanding of this area of the Web.
Prior to attending, I had known and explained to clients that the Web is a worldwide medium and this needs to be considered when developing content and navigation. But to be honest I had never given it a huge amount of thought. Probably because the predominant number of websites are written in English and their interfaces are designed for Western Cultures - so being an Australian these issues had not significantly affected me.
Internationalization and localization of content
In his talk Richard defined internationalization and localization as:
“Internationalization is the design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.”
“Localization is the adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market (a ‘locale’).”
When considering these ideas and content you need to think about the primary aims and audiences of your website. If your aim is to reach a global audience then you will need to incorporate internationalization into your content strategy as you would with your code and design. There are many ways in which this can be done and I have listed some broad considerations below.
Developing your site in one language
If you decide your audience is global but choose to keep your site in a single language you might think about:
- Dates, calendars and times (e.g. dates from different cultures include DD/MM/YY, MM/DD/YY, and YY/MM/DD).
- Avoiding phrasing and references unique to certain cultures or groups.
- Defining abbreviations (e.g. NSW).
- Numeric formats (e.g. 1.547 in a country and 1,547 in another country might actually be the same number.)
- How forms are structured and the collection of personal information.
- Whether your text and graphics contain references to objects, actions or ideas which, in a given culture, may be subject to misinterpretation or viewed as insensitive.
- How the content and interface interact. This includes the location, labeling and presentation of navigation.
- The use of plain language - no jargon.
The advantage of this approach is that it takes less time and it may allow you or someone else to localize your content in the future. The disadvantages however might include audience alienation and bland content that does not appeal to any group.
Developing your site in several languages
This can be done in a number of ways depending on the content and what the website is trying to do (e.g. inform, sell, educate).
- If you maintain the same content and carry out direct translations you might enable the users to understand the content but it might lack any interest or relevance.
- Alternatively you might have multilingual content written specifically for your audiences’ local cultures and interests, which often increases relevance.
The disadvantages of multilingual approaches are that they can be costly and complex to implement.
Delivering a culturally tailored website has obvious advantages and disadvantages. What you decide to do will depend primarily on your website’s aims and audiences.