).
Copyright HCi Consulting,
2001-3.HCi Journal of Information Development
By
Eiman Elnahrawy
Department of Computer Science, Rutgers University
The World Wide Web enables a global distribution of products and services as well as communication among users from different cultures and languages all over the world. Many efforts are currently being made by several organizations to accommodate variations among the Internet users such as their cultural conventions, languages, etc. We, the web developers, have to participate in these efforts as well. Specifically, if we really want our websites to be accessed by users from different cultures world wide, we have to adapt them to those users.
Culture can be broadly defined as the behaviors, way of thinking, traditions and beliefs that distinguish the members of one group from another. Several variations may exist between different cultures. Such variations may be found in colors, graphics and icons, phrases, etc., and can affect the understanding of the website and its functionality. In particular, users from different cultures may understand the same website in completely different ways. Some metaphors, navigation, interaction or appearance can be misunderstood and may confuse or even offend those users.
Consequently, many usability issues arise when our websites are accessed by users from other cultures. Taking care of these usability issues is a necessity and not an option; the usability plays a key role in attracting our users. In addition, the number of websites that have similar or even the same functionality is increasing very rapidly. The usability is therefore a major factor upon which users choose between our website and alternative competing websites. While no website can satisfy the needs of all users from all over the world and be perfectly-usable, we should spend some efforts on “globalizing” our websites by revising their designs, and improving their organization, clarity, and user-interface. That would enhance their overall effectiveness and would make them more “universally” or “globally” usable.
What makes a global website?
In contrast, there is more to going “global” in designing our websites than just having multilingual ones. What we really need is “multicultural” websites, which in general is a much harder problem than designing global software. If we really want our websites to be “universally” usable we should consider the impact of culture on the understanding and the use of our sites. We should pay a close attention to our own culture orientations, understand the preferred structures and interfaces for the other cultures, and analyze the needs, wants, preferences, and expectations of users from those different cultures through references to cross-cultural theories.
Notice that some issues such as the date, calendars, weekends, time, telephone numbers, address formats, units of measurements, currency, and holidays are well-defined and can easily be taken care of in our designs. Other factors, on the other hand, are harder to analyze since they are usually hidden or vague. For example, the mental perception, graphics, colors, metaphors, and the order of finding information by our target users. They therefore require a special consideration. This article introduces general recommendations and guidelines for accommodating diverse users from other cultures. It also provides some sample websites and analyzes them based on the introduced guidelines.
Guidelines: How can I make my website universally-usable?
Think Internationally. Decide whether you want international users to visit your original website or a local one.
Work in an intercultural team to develop your website. This is the most cost effective solution. It also produces the highest quality. An intercultural team reduces the need to contact local usability experts each time you need to add some modifications.
Know everything about your users. Know their cultures, objectives, characteristics, environment, typical level of education, pattern of interaction, etc. Once you are familiar with all that, you are ready to begin designing. Start asking yourself questions like: What objectives do users hope to achieve using my website and how do these factors affect the way in which these objectives are achieved? The only way to find the answer to these questions is by empirical studies. Do not forget to keep a detailed documentation of these requirements; it ensures that the design goals are clearly explained and can be checked at any time in the future, in case you need to add some extensions to your website.
Minimize the use of images. Images are not generally suitable for every culture. Draw users’ attention to particular sections on the web-page by using other alternatives such as tables, attractive icons, etc. Remember, users are usually more interested in the content and the functionality.
Observe cultural conventions. Be careful when you decide about words and phrases, symbols, graphics, and colors. Those that are suitable for a western culture may have a totally different meaning or may even confuse users from other cultures. Stick with culturally neutral language. Try to minimizing the use of symbols and use clear words instead. Replace the mailbox graphics by an envelope as an indication for "email"; it is much easier to recognize for users from other cultures. Notice that the red color that indicates a stop in the U.S. may have a different impact in other cultures.
Keep your website simple, clear, and focused. Make the functionality of your website as clear as you can. Remember that well-written introductory and explanatory pages and clearly designed navigational tools can greatly improve the usability of your website. Use clear simple language; English can be your native language but it may be the second, the third, or even the fourth language for many of your users.
Consider the different format for entering data in other countries of other cultures. Date, time, units of measurements, places, and contact information are critical pieces of information in today's world.
Use unambiguous dates: The US convention of using month-day-year is not universal. In fact, day-month-year is used in many other countries around the world. To avoid ambiguity, always use words for the months (abbreviated if necessary), use a four-digit number for the year. Posting December 8, 1999 or Dec. 8, 1999 is more universally informative than 12/8/99. To an American, "5/11/2000" reads as "May 11, 2000" but users in most other countries would read this abbreviated date as "November 5, 2000"! For forms, you may consider the use of structured dates and popup menus.
Use unambiguous time format: This piece of information can be very critical, e.g., when you refer to the hours of your office operation. Reference time by the 24-hour time-system, and add an appropriate time zone or a reference to the Greenwich Mean Time. For example, the 9am – 5pm schedule in the Eastern U.S. time zone would becomes 9 - 17 EST (GMT -5).
Use unambiguous units of measurement: Be sure that all the units are clearly provided, and use the International System of Units (SI), since it is the accepted standard around the world. For example, if your website offers any products or services for purchase, provide the currency and the numbers. Use the standard abbreviations for currencies, e.g., USD for U.S. Dollars. If you know the countries of your users, you may give an estimate of the price in their local currencies as well. Alternatively, you may add a link to an online currency converter. There are currently many of them available on the web.
Use flexible formats for places: Remember that any form should accommodate longer and various formats for international names, addresses, phone and fax numbers. It should also be flexible in data-validity checks. The number of digits of phone numbers varies around the world, so does the length of zip or postal codes. A common mistake is to make the “State” field mandatory on the form!
Make your site easy to learn and to use. Remember that a good website should be like a good software, you shouldn't need a detailed manual to learn how to use it every time. Make your user-interface simple, easy to learn and to use. Clear and intuitive site-organization is the key to usable sites. Navigational tools and guides are also important. A lack of such a support makes it more difficult for your users to find the information they are looking for.
Consider the order followed by users from different cultures to find information. Users from different cultures look for different data to make their decisions. The order you use to find information when you are planning a vacation may be completely different from the order Japanese users follow.
Consider the position at which you place important information. Placing important information in the center of the page or its upper left is suitable for users from western cultures, since these are their emphasis points. Be careful, however, when you design for users from other cultures that read right-to-left, top-to-bottom, and so on. Adjust the position of information accordingly.
Don’t directly translate from one language to another. To identify and minimize the differences in the constructs between the two languages, translate into the target language, translate it back into the source language, and then compare [5].
Perform international usability testing and expert reviews for your final design. To make sure that your final design is okay, have professionals and ordinary users in your target countries evaluate your website before going public. They can reveal problems that you did not take into account during the design.
Maintain the usability of your website. After posting your website test it regularly for any needed improvements. Conduct interviews and ask some of your target users, who have been using the website for an appropriate period of investigation, for their comments and suggestions.
Indicate your Contact Information. Put your name and contact information on the website, and ask your users to send you their comments and feedback. Be friendly and invite them to contact you if they need any further information. Notice that locally toll free numbers are not usually free outside your country, so clearly state that on your website whenever you provide such numbers.
Sample Websites
In order to further understand these usability issues let us discuss some sample websites and analyze their approaches. The BBC online website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ ) is a good attempt toward accommodating users from different cultures. It provides several local websites that cover several cultures all over the world. It adapts the displayed news and the language according to the user’s choice. It takes care of the images, phrases, colors, time and date formats, etc., according to the selected region of the world. It also provides a good help and encourages its users to send their feedback and report any problems or suggestions. Although the site needs more efforts on improving the layout of the displayed news, it is generally simple, clear and attractive for users from different cultures. For example, notice that the forecast in the Arabic website appears in the English language with a format and icons clearly unfamiliar to the Arabic users who read right-to-left.
The Amazon website (http://www.amazon.com) also attempts to accommodate users from different cultures by providing local websites for the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and France in addition to its United States website. It also attempts to take care of the cultural conventions in each local website such as the colors and the icons. In addition, it considers the different formats for entering data and displaying prices in the local currencies of these countries. The functionality is clear and a good help is provided.
Providing local websites for each culture is not usually a scalable approach. It is not feasible to provide a local site for every country if your target users are scattered in numerous countries. Moreover, the same country may consist of different cultures and languages. Some countries that speak the same language may as well differ significantly in their cultures. A better solution would be to adapt the original site to accommodate as many different cultures as possible.
In general, more research and empirical studies are needed on culture, its preferences, and how they affect the user interface design. We also need to keep records, supporting documentation, or even templates and special versioning tools for every culture to help us better design and organize our future websites. We can therefore avoid performing much repeated research each time we need to develop a new website, which in turn is more cost effective.First published August 2003
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Copyright HCi Consulting,
2001-3.
HCi information development - www.hci.com.au
(technical writing, quality management, knowledge management)