5 tips for International Usability

It’s been a busy summer for cxpartners. We’ve been user testing across Europe and the US and designing with teams based across the world.

We’re currently redesigning Jaguar.com with a team based in the US. We are helping Washington DC based Marriott redesign the booking process for all their global sites. We recently helped Australian telco Telstra redesign their intranet. We have been user testing across Europe with the BMA, Peugeot, Lexus and eBay.

So what have we learnt?

1. Translation can break your design
Designing for one language is straight forward, designing for translation isn’t. This especially true for navigation. Where in English we may be able to have 7 options in a horizontal navigation, translating this into German means the words get longer and before you know it you have a wrapping text.
The solution: Keep navigation terms concise and translate as you go along, and allow for wrapping in certain parts of the design

2. Use icons not words
Translation is an expensive job, icons can really help. By designing an icon words are not needed reducing translation costs.

While we are discussing icons it’s worth noting that icons don’t always translate. The classic thumbs-up meaning “I like this” or “OK” can have an unfortunate meaning to South Americans. The solution: Use icons where appropriate and where possible test them with local people

3. Localize (Localise?)
Sometimes a direct translation of a website is not enough. This is a simple mistake that can really alienate users, especially us Brits. UK users really object to US English. The terms we’ve heard the most moans about: Shopping Cart, Store for e-commerce and for automotive Trunk, Windshield The solution: Localise, or as I mentioned above avoid the words and use an image.

4. Dates.
UK dates dd/mm/yy and US dates mm/dd/yy and in Asia yy/mm/dd can be easily confused. 09/08/08 is it August or September this year or next? Date entry fields that are just one text box can cause real confusion. The solution: It’s not as simple as letting the user know what they should type into the box, 3 select boxes are by far and away the best way, use the three letter month code Jan to further prevent confusion.

5. Different country, different ways of doing things
A good example is payment methods, German users for example are happiest paying by bank transfer, US users prefer plastic, UK users trust PayPal, in Japan users are happy to pay via their mobile. Getting the wrong payment method can erode the trust you’ve built up with users
The solution: choose the payment method that best suits that country and user test where possible

Find out more about international usability:

• International User Experience