Designing for a Global Market

‘Going Global’ should not mean creating a single design ‘for a global audience’ and then machine translating all the text. Translating or internationalising website or application content is just one necessary step towards the real end-goal, which is true product localisation. To truly ‘Go Global’ you shouldn’t just internationalise your product, you should localise it.

Localisation doesn’t just mean translation, it means ensuring the design is appropriate for different cultures. Localisation is about adapting a product so users experience it as if it had been designed for and in their particular language and culture. A proper localisation process will ensure that your website or product is adapted, not just to the language needs of the new audience but also to their cultural, technical and regulatory standards.

Step 1: Design for Internationalisation

Internationalisation is about designing a product in a way so that localisation is easier and can be done without the need for rework or major product redesign. Just as your business ought to have an in-depth understanding of the market conditions in your target locale, to create designs that work well for the intended audience, designers need to have an in-depth understanding of the culture in that locale, therefore you should conduct cultural research for every new market you want to enter. As Erin Meyer points out in her excellent book ‘The Culture Map’; “cultural patterns of behaviour and belief frequently impact our perceptions (what we see), cognitions (what we think) and actions (what we do)”, and this has an impact on design.

For example, in product design we use metaphors all the time; icons, buttons and many interactions are all metaphors for things that exist in the real physical world. But metaphors can often mean different things in different cultures. For example, in both the United States and the United Kingdom, we could use an owl as a metaphor for wisdom; but in India, an owl would convey a different meaning, in fact it could be used to represent foolishness, ugliness or misfortune because of its association with the goddess Lakshmi.

Also, the physical objects that icons represent can also look different in different countries, for example in many European countries the post boxes have a post-horn on them, so most Europeans would recognise the first image and understand that it represented physical mail, however it would not convey the same meaning to a Japanese user who would expect to see the red yūbin symbol.

Colours too can convey different meanings in different cultures. In most western cultures for example, we associate red with danger, anger, love or passion; whereas in many eastern cultures red is associated with luck, long life, and happiness, and in India specifically, red is associated with purity, love, beauty, wealth and power. The reason blue is often chosen by international brands is because in most cultures the associations are generally positive, even though they may differ.

Technical aspects in the target locale also need to be considered. For example, if users in your new market usually use smartphones to access the internet, ensuring the design is optimised for mobile becomes even more important. And if their usual mobile connection is via 3G or 4G, low connectivity optimisation becomes as important as a responsive design.

General Recommendations

As you can see, designing for internationalisation requires a lot of thought and consideration; it isn’t something to be rushed into and it involves multiple aspects of a product. It’s a good idea to review your designs with people who have a different mental model from your own or that of your teammates and a good understanding of the target locale to help identify potential issues before they become too big to change without great effort.

Localisation is such a big topic that it can’t be covered in a single blog post and if you’re undertaking it for the first time, I would strongly recommend getting advice from a localisation team that has experience of your target locale. I’m including here a list of just a few of the things you need to keep in mind when designing to ensure your product is ready for localisation as an example.

Branding

You want your brand to be consistent and recognisable across locales, so consider whether the choice of font for your brand supports any special character requirements in the languages of your target markets.

Content and Tone of Voice

It’s best to use clear, simple terms and avoid idioms and slang. However, if you want to use a friendly, jokey, relaxed tone of voice then consider providing translators with alternative text in a more formal tone to use for translation for target locales with a more formal culture. While machine translation is quick and fast and useful for testing, proper localisation will ensure the information is correctly conveyed in the context of the target locale.

Layout and Spacing

• Ensure there is enough room for translated text in your components. Different languages need different amounts of screen space to display the same information, so if you haven’t allowed enough space you may end up with overlapping or cut-off text. Also take account of the fact that the length of user inputted text will also differ, so allow space there too. And avoid placing UI components within sentences.

• Be aware that different language characters can also have different heights: English, French, or German characters will be approximately the same height, but Asian language characters, Chinese for example, will be much taller.

• Place labels above fields rather than beside them. This not only makes it easier to accommodate longer translated text, but also simplifies handling changes to language direction from a left to right language such as English, to right to left language such as Arabic.

Data Formats

Make sure you can support the data formats used in different locales, for example for date order, currency separators, and units of measurement.

Imagery

Be very careful with the use of images and video. Don’t embed text in an image. Ensure the metaphors used for iconography are meaningful (and inoffensive) to the users in the target locale. Make sure you review the content of any images or video to make sure they are appropriate and won’t cause offense or be confusing to users in other cultures.

Key Takeaways

• Internationalise first, in order to be thematically and aesthetically consistent across locales; then localise.

• Localisation isn’t just about language or culture, it’s about optimising for the way your users will access (and interact with) your application or website.

• If you’ve not done it before, you’ll probably need external help.