Achieving High Visibility on the Global Web - How to Prepare Your Web Site for Translation

Is there a demand for your products or services outside of your domestic market? If so, how are you marketing to this group of potential customers? How do you overcome language and cultural barriers? Web Localization, which is the process of translating your web site into your customers' languages and adapting to local markets, is an essential step toward establishing a market presence.

Iler, Huiping. WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization

Comparing the Usability of Three Dual-Language School Websites

This study evaluated the usability of three websites for Spanish-English Dual Language K-8 schools. Twelve participants (6 parents, 6 teachers) reviewed and performed tasks on the three public school websites. Site usability was determined through both objective and subjective measures, including task completion time, first-click, total number of pages visited, task success, perceived task difficulty, user satisfaction, and overall ranked preference. Results indicated that one site was preferred more than the others by both user groups and resulted in more efficient search behavior. Clear navigation, link terminology, and proper use of both languages were found to be critical factors contributing to the sites’ usability.

Naidu, Shivashankar, Veronica D. Hinkle and Sav Shrestha. Usability News (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Localization

Creating Multilingual Websites - Part 1

Extend the existing globalization capabilities of .NET to create flexible and powerful multilgual web sites. First, create a custom ResourceManager, and then create custom localized-capable server controls to easily deploy multilingual functionality.

Seguin, Karl. Code Project, The (2004). Articles>Web Design>Localization>ASP

Creating Multilingual Websites - Part 2

Extend the existing globalization capabilities of .NET to create flexible and powerful multilgual web sites. First, create a custom ResourceManager, and then create custom localized-capable server controls to easily deploy multilingual functionality.

Seguin, Karl. Code Project, The (2004). Articles>Web Design>Localization

Creating Multilingual Websites - Part 3

Extend the existing globalization capabilities of .NET to create flexible and powerful multilgual web sites. This third part won't focus on the fundamental but rather enhancements to what we've already covered.

Seguin, Karl. Code Project, The (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization>ASP

The Culture of China's Internet    

With China fast overtaking the United States as the world's largest online market, Rogers provides helpful information on how technical communicators can tailor their Web sites to appeal to Chinese visitors.

Rogers, Kevin. Intercom (2008). Articles>Web Design>Localization>China

The Dangers of Publishing Your Website in Another Language

Publishing your website in another language is like managing a brand new website. It demands people who are expert in writing and editing in that language. The standard of English on the Web, for example, is often poor, even for those whose native language it is. It can be embarrassingly bad for websites publishing English as a foreign language.

McGovern, Gerry. WTB Language Group. Articles>Web Design>Localization

Five Ways to Use Web Site Translation to Help the Bottom Line

In what aspects does the global web impact business? How can we use it to embark on new opportunities and save cost on running our existing business?

Iler, Huiping. WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization

Internationalize Your Apps with XSLT

To meet the needs of users worldwide, today's Web applications often require internationalization. In this article, you'll see an approach for client-side internationalization based on XSLT. This solution only requires that both the data to be internationalized and the server stores are in XML.

Gianfagna, Leonida, Stefano Borghetti and Antonio Perrone. IBM (2008). Articles>Web Design>Localization>XSL

Localizing for Mobile Devices: A Primer

The mobile world and localization: designing for mobile communications; small screens; screens of various types; keyboards versus styluses; operating systems for mobile devices; proper internationalization is necessary.

LISA (2001). Articles>Language>Localization>Web Design

Prepare Your Site for the Global Market    

Are you looking for ways to maximize your company's global Web presence? Look no further, as the authors have laid out a step-by-step plan for creating and designing a multilingual site.

Deschamps-Potter, Catherine M. and Amy Plant. Intercom (2008). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Language

A Prototype Theory Approach to Website Localization: An Analytical Method for Technical Communicators    

As global online access grows, Web site designers find themselves creating materials for an increasingly international audience. Cultural groups, however, can have different expectations of what constitutes acceptable Web site design. This article examines how prototype theory can serve as a methodology for analyzing Web sites designed for users from different cultures. Such analyses, in turn, can help individuals create more effective online materials for international audiences.

St. Amant, Kirk R. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Cultural Theory

Translating the Web: Web Site Development for an Asian Audience

In all aspects of marketing, the Eastern world is breaking through to the West. More and more businesses are expanding product lines and services into a new market that involves countries in East Asia. Whether a business forms an alliance with a Chinese company to use its resources for a project, or it sells directly to Japanese consumers, it is clear that key media materials should be appropriate for Asian audiences.

Sinex, Jacqueline. Usability Professionals Association (2006). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Asia

Understanding Usability Issues of Bidirectional Bilingual Websites

Over the past ten years, there has been an ever-increasing amount of usability recommendations for improving website design. Much of the data has focused on navigation of single-language websites. But few studies have tackled the problems of bilingual sites, and virtually no information has been gathered about usability of bilingual or multilingual sites where the languages are not written in the same direction (for example, English, which is read from left-to-right, and Hebrew, which is read from right-to-left).

Guren, Leah. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Usability

Visibility in Italian Search Engines

Visibility in Italian search engines is a matter of content, design and organization just as it is in the English-language engines. As Jill often points out to us, the better your content is, the more targeted traffic your Web site will generate.

WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Search

Why Web 2.0 Matters: Preparing for Glocalization

Technologists and designers have differing views focused on either the technology and standards or the experience. Even Wikipedia seems confused and cumulative definitions are not inclusive. Buzzwords associated with Web 2.0 include: remix, tagging, hackability, social networks, open APIs, microcontent, personalization. People discuss how the web is moving from a read-only system to a read/write system and they focus on technologies like GreaseMonkey, Ajax, RSS/Atom, Ruby on Rails. Of course, others talk about the paradoxical relationship between openness and control. The reality is that when people talk about Web2.0, they're talking about a political affiliation with The Next Cool Thing, even if no one has a clue what it is yet. Personally, i don't find comfort in any of the business, technological or experiential explanations. Yet, i do believe that a shift is occurring and i find myself emotionally invested in it. So then i had to ask myself: what is Web2.0 and why does it matter? The answer is glocalization.

Boyd, Danah. Zephoria (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Social Networking

Localizing the Internet Beyond Communities and Networks    

As the numbers of internet users worldwide continue to grow, the internet is becoming `more local'. This article addresses the epistemological challenge posed by this global process of internet localization by examining some of the conceptual tools at the disposal of internet researchers. It argues that progress has been hampered by an overdependence on the problematic notions of community and network whose paradigmatic status has yet to be questioned by internet scholars. The article seeks to broaden the conceptual space of internet localization studies through a ground-up conceptualization exercise that draws inspiration from the field theories of both Pierre Bourdieu and the Manchester School of Anthropology, and is based on recent fieldwork in suburban Malaysia. This exploration demonstrates that a more nuanced understanding of the plural forms that residential sociality can take is needed in order to move beyond existing binaries such as `network sociality' versus `community sociality'.

Postill, John. New Media and Society (2008). Articles>Web Design>Localization>International

Going Global the Centralized Way

Creating a user interface that is consistent across a website isn't easy. But managers of sites that serve multilingual, multinational users are going to have to rise to the task, however daunting it may be.

Rosenfeld, Louis. CIO Magazine (2000). Articles>Web Design>International>Localization

Are You Cultured?

When a company decides to globalize its site, the Web team often learns the taboo colors and appropriate dress codes of a given culture, translates the text, and launches. But cultural differences run deeper than visual appearance or language; they reflect strong values. Rarely do globalized sites incorporate the nuances of a culture's social hierarchy, individualism, gender roles, time-orientation, or truth-seeking attributes.

Marcus, Aaron. Dr. Dobb's (2003). Articles>Web Design>Globalization>Localization

G/localization: When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide

Glocalization is the ugliness that ensues when the global and local are shoved uncomfortably into the same concept. It doesn't sit well on your palette, it doesn't have a nice euphoric ring. It implies all sorts of linguistic and cognitive discomfort. This is the state of the global and local in digital communities. We have all sorts of local cultures connected through a global network, resulting in all sorts of ugly tensions. Designers who work with networks must face these tensions and design to take advantage of the global while not destroying the local. This is a hefty challenge and one that i want us to dive into.

Boyd, Danah. Danah.org (2006). Articles>Web Design>Globalization>Localization

Language Problems to be Coped with in Web Localization    

Web Localization means the process of making all kinds of information on a Web site culturally, linguistically, graphically, and technologically customized to the needs of the users of the target country. Web site localization is an important means by which an industry or organization wins an international market for its products or services since the Internet has billions of users and has the world wide access. However, language problems are still an obstacle to successful Web localization or online writings for cross-cultural audiences, which result in failing to achieve the communication purpose of the organization or company that has the problems on its Web site. This article mainly focuses on the language problems in online writing or localizing a Web linguistically for cross-cultural audiences from semantic, syntactical, textual, and rhetorical perspectives and makes some suggestions for solving the problems.

Zhu, Pinfan. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Articles>Web Design>Localization>Translation