Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
"Always ALWAYS do for the user what you can do for them." I wouldn't say always DO, i'd rather say always give the flexibility to CHOOSE, because we never know exactly what all users want or need. Gregor, I totally agree with you. Google search is my top of mind example for this kind of behavior - always send me to Brazil's sites even though I didn't start my search at .com.br Facebook and Youtube ask me (although they ask me every log-in!) if I want to migrate to portuguese version of its sites... In the other hand, if I always translate some words from portuguese to english, couldn't "Google Translate" always offers me that option right in the first position, as default? This would be still flexibility to choose, but with some intelligence behind it. Regards, Sofia Ferrés Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
For choosing a default language, you could (or even should) use the language preference of the user. With each request the browser includes the language preference of the user. It's stored in the variable HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE and will look like something as "en-ca,en;q=0.8,fr-ca;q=0.5,fr;q=0.3". The http_accept_language variable contains a comma separated list of possible languages/locales, each (optional) with a quotient indicating the order of importance. To check your own language setting visit: http://www.ylab.nl/lab/lang.php - Yohan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42726 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
If you are working on an International site, I'd suggest a 3 level approach - last level optional. First level: Regional Domains. .com for (U.S) English, .co.uk for (U.K) English, .co.au for whatever we speak in Australia, .co.jp for Japanese, etc. I'd start here for the following reasons: a) I'd hazard a guess that most people around the globe would be familiar with the region domains associated with their country/native language and may even be familiar with the technique of directly switching .co.au to .co.jp to get to the Japanese site. b) if your user's use Google for their search, chances are they'll be doing it from their native region domain - e.g. google.com.au or google.co.jp. When I run a search for "Sony" from these 2 places, the (Australian) English Sony site and Japanese Sony site come back in no. 1 place respectively. c) you have the advantage of another layer of segmentation to play with - language plus region. Second Level: IP Address for best second guess. Say your user is in Japan, but somehow ends up on sony.com.au where everything is in Australian English. Use their IP address to provide a customized link to the Japanese version of the site, but don't force them to go there as they may well be looking for the English/Australian version of the site. The link should, of course, be in the language associated with the IP address. In this example, Japanese. Third level: Manual override. If you feel you need to go even further than this (perhaps to cater for diverse ethnic groups within a single region), then I'd recommend either: a) links (in appropriate language) to the region/language specific sites - in the footer should suffice. b) a combo-box to the same effect. Hope this helps. Cheers. Marcus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42726 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
Gregor. You are in the vast minority. ONLY using IP is dangerous. A splash page is a bad idea because you route 99% of your users to a useless page. Make it easy to switch to a new language, auto-detect, and you will be fine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42726 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
As someone who recently returned from Denmark to the US I'm not loving the auto detect of IP address. I got sevved a few sites in Danish...and I don't know any Danish. I understand how valuable it can be for the tons of folks who are on their own environment but for the frequent taveller it must be a pain. If there's a way around this, i'm unaware so any insight would be great. Thx. -mm Sent from my iPhone On Jun 10, 2009, at 12:27 PM, Catriona Lohan-conway > wrote: Jason, Did you read my mind I was just about to send out a similar post. My line of thought was about best practices on how users select countries and languages on global websites. A few questions... Should sites auto detect IP addresses and serve default settings according to country, language? Should users have ability to chose their preferred country and language preferences off a splash page as in Ikea.com on a first visit (and/or subsequent visits) and have the ability to change at will? Thanks Catríona __ Catríona Lohan-Conway User Experience Architect 917 405 5127 clohancon...@mac.com On Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at 03:51AM, "Jason Robb" > wrote: Hi all, I'm new to building internationalized web sites, and so I'm looking at design patterns for language pickers. Have you seen any good ones? Much appreciated. Thanks! Jason R. -- Jason Robb http://jasonrobb.com http://uxboston.com http://uiscraps.tumblr.com Reply to this thread at ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42722 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
" A few questions... Should sites auto detect IP addresses and serve default settings according to country, language?" I would say no, if only based on personal experience. Our corporate connection goes through our headquarters in France. Google in particular seems to be determined to direct me to the French version of all its pages, which is extremely annoying. Gregor Kiddie Senior Developer INPS Tel: 01382 564343 Registered address: The Bread Factory, 1a Broughton Street, London SW8 3QJ Registered Number: 1788577 Registered in the UK Visit our Internet Web site at www.inps.co.uk The information in this internet email is confidential and is intended solely for the addressee. Access, copying or re-use of information in it by anyone else is not authorised. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of INPS or any of its affiliates. If you are not the intended recipient please contact is.helpd...@inps.co.uk Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
William stole my reply! ;-) And of course, write the names of the languages *in* their own language (Español, not Spanish). Not sure about everyone else, but I don't know how to read the word "English" written in Mandarin characters ;-) I would be careful (avoid?) using country flags as icons for language too since many countries have multiple languages. You do see that on European travel sites a fair amount but it breaks down (Switzerland is a great example). Not to mention oh how it burns me having to click a British flag to see a website in English for a hotel in Paris! j.k. ;-) I also think the language selection dropdown or whatever it is, can be moved to the bottom of the UI or somewhere out of the way; you don't need constant reminders that you can switch languages on the site. Classic example of Set and Forget. Good luck Jason! Brian www.rhythmspice.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42726 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
Always ALWAYS do for the user what you can do for them. Auto-detect and provide -some- way to second guess the machine. But don't expect a lot of people to second guess. The best language picker is the one the user never sees. If you can't auto-detect, and you almost always can, a decent picker would be one that makes it easy to find the most common choices. And possible to find the least common. English - French - German - Spanish - Pig Latin - Klingon In the respective languages of course. Followed by a select box with all of them in alphabetical order, even the ones you selected to break out into links. Best of all worlds, I think. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42726 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Best practices for Country location and languages on Global Websites (was Language Picker)
Jason, Did you read my mind I was just about to send out a similar post. My line of thought was about best practices on how users select countries and languages on global websites. A few questions... Should sites auto detect IP addresses and serve default settings according to country, language? Should users have ability to chose their preferred country and language preferences off a splash page as in Ikea.com on a first visit (and/or subsequent visits) and have the ability to change at will? Thanks Catríona __ Catríona Lohan-Conway User Experience Architect 917 405 5127 clohancon...@mac.com On Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at 03:51AM, "Jason Robb" wrote: >Hi all, > >I'm new to building internationalized web sites, and so I'm looking >at design patterns for language pickers. > >Have you seen any good ones? Much appreciated. Thanks! > >Jason R. > >-- >Jason Robb >http://jasonrobb.com >http://uxboston.com >http://uiscraps.tumblr.com > > > >Reply to this thread at ixda.org >http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42722 > > >Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org >Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
