Global by Design

For years I’ve been preaching the importance of the “global gateway” — the elements that Web sites use to seamlessly direct Web users to their localized Web sites and content, such as this splash global gateway:

But there is a different type of gateway out there that is worth mentioning — a gateway unique to the Web sites of alcoholic beverages: the age gateway.

Here is the age gateway of Budweiser:

The age gateway has to be one of the most useless gateways ever devised — and certainly one of the most frustrating to use.

For starters, every beer maker seems to have its own take on how best to design the gateway. The gateways are usually Flash-based and typically difficult to use. What I end up doing is simply entering 01/01/1971 just to get through it as quickly as possible.

I would predict that the logs of Budweiser feature an inordinately high number of people born on the first day of the year.

But the reason why I’m mentioning the age gateway here is two-fold. In the case of Budweiser (and most competitive Web sites), the age gateway comes before the global gateway.

Once you get past the “virtual bouncer” and into the Budweiser site, in order to find your specific country or language Web site, you must do a bit of searching. Here is the buried link:

This link takes you to this page:

According to Budweiser, “great taste knows no boundaries.” But great global design apparently does run up against a few boundaries. For a non-English speaker, getting to this gateway is no trivial task.

What’s the lesson here?

Don’t place the age gateway before the global gateway.

Let the Web user find his or her localized Web site before you present your virtual bouncer. This is particularly important because dates are not presented in the same format in all countries. By directing the user to his or her local site first, you can then present your age gateway in the correct date format.

And, as my brother pointed out, different countries have different drinking ages — yet another reason to put the global gateway before the age gateway.

Now for the second point I wanted to make regarding age gateways.

Not long ago I came across a new product known as the Beertender. It’s a sort of mini-keg fridge designed specifically for Heineken.

Take a moment to visit www.beertender.com and you’ll first encounter this splash global gateway:

It is not until you select a country that you arrive at an age gateway.To my knowledge, Heineken is the first company to place its global gateway ahead of the age gateway!

If you select the French site, you’ll arrive at a very simple yes/no age gateway:

But because American lawyers are not as freewheeling as the French in regards to underage drinking, here is the American age gateway:

But even here you’ll find that Beertender makes significant usability improvements. Instead of asking the user to input dates, you simply select the dates displayed on the screen. It’s remarkably faster to get through.

So it’s nice to see Beertender not only put its global gateway ahead of its age gateway, but also support localized and user-friendly age gateways. I hope the other beer makers of the world take notice.

• The creative side of global navigation
• Halo 3 Puts Age Before Language
• A Few Global Gateways
• Update on Best Western’s Global Gateway
• The Best Global Web Sites (and why)

Is it just me or does the new Google Chrome icon remind you of the old Simon game of the 1980s. Yes, I know I’m dating myself here, but I do see a resemblance…

• Changing the face of the Internet — one ccTLD at a time
• Taking Video Games Global
• TypePad Adds Globe Icon to Globel Gateway
• Baidu.co.jp? China’s Leading Search Engine Eyeing Japan
• It Is Time We Standardize Global Web Navigation

I recently came across a chart of the most popular domain extensions, compiled by Stephane Van Gelder. Although I keep track of ccTLD registrations for the Country Codes of the World map, Stephane tracks all domains, including .com, .net., etc. And when I saw it I got to thinking…

Here’s a screen grab of the figures I want to focus on:

What makes this chart so interesting are the growth rates — .com is growing at 5% and .cn is growing at 18%. Granted, it’s easier to grow at 18% when you’ve only got 12 million registrations, compared with growing at 5% when you’ve got 76 million registrations.

But growth is growth and .cn is clearly on a roll.

And China has a lot of headroom for growth in terms of Web users and potential domain registrants. I am confident that .cn will reach 50 million registrations over the next 3 years.

At about that point in time, .com should be around 100 million registrants — in no danger of losing its number one status.

However, if the rate of growth of .com registrations were to decrease while .cn rate of growth continues to increase, it’s reasonable to wonder if we will one day see the number of .cn registrations surpass .com registrations?

I realize this is a far-fetched scenario.

After all, it’s reasonable to assume that companies that register .cn may also register .com — and the majority do just that.

But it’s certainly something to contemplate. And even if .cn never comes close to surpassing .com, the overall point I’d like to emphasize here is that .cn is now the world’s second most popular domain extention — and likely to remain that way for many years.

What do you think?

• .AU reaches one million registrations
• .CN: From 2 million to 10 million in 12 months
• .SU: The domain that refuses to die
• Poland joins the million domain club
• One million .CN registrations in just one month

Web form usability expert Luke Wroblewski provides a very handy article on the challenges of developing Web input forms that work in various countries.

Data input and output is where Web localization projects often sink or swim. And Web forms can give a global marketing director night sweats.

Luke stresses that if you can identify the user’s country before presenting the form, you’re in much better shape, because you can then provide a fully localized form. And this is why global navigation is so incredibly important to successful Web localization. If you can help your customer find his or her country Web site right from the start, everything else gets so much easier (for you and your customer).

Here’s the article.

• Global Gateway Tip: Don’t Play Favorites
• Taking Customer Service Global (via Charleston)
• The iPhone App localization opportunity
• Google perpetuates the American .com myth
• .eu Off to a Strong Start

I’m a pack rat and I’m trying to rid myself of the habit.

But it was interesting to come across this copy of Newsweek magazine from 1979:

• Newsweek Localization: Sometimes The Truth Hurts
• CMO Magazine: Lost in Translation
• Will The Economist Become Too American?
• Tips for Creating Bilingual Software and Web Sites
• Web Globalization Best Practices White Paper

A commenter on my post on the stunning lack of languages on the Olympics Web site (particularly when compared with Euro 2008) notes that two more languages were added recently: Spanish and Arabic.

Here are before and after shots of the language gateway.

August 6th:

August 14th:

What I find interesting is that these two languages were either added right when the Olympics began or possibly even a few days later.

• iGoogle: Now in 42 Languages
• Two thoughts on Euro 2008 and Web globalization
• Language Weaver adds language pairs
• World Bank Adds Arabic Web Site (Finally)
• AT&T: Going Global Awkwardly