Category Archives: Global navigation

IBM: A tale of two global gateways

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IBM, much to my chagrin, has used a lengthy pull-down menu as its global gateway for years.

Here’s what it looks like:

There are two problems with this menu, the first being that web users in Sweden, Turkey and other countries in the lower end of the alphabet are forced to do a fair amount of scrolling.

The second problem is the names of the languages themselves. As you can see here, “French” really should be displayed in French and not in English. After all, the goal is to appear to users in their preferred languages. This may seem like a minor detail, but it’s not.

Recently, I discovered that the IBM careers web site makes use a different (and improved) global gateway shown here:

Notice how the countries are presented in an overlay menu instead of a pull-down menu. No more scrolling!

Unfortunately, the languages are still not presented in their native languages. I do want to commend IBM for at least displaying the language that is supported by each country site.  I cannot emphasize enough that letting users know that their language is not supported is just as important as letting them know that their language is supported. Don’t hide this information!

It will be interesting to see in the months ahead if the main IBM web site adopts the careers global gateway.

For more on global gateways, check out my book.

What the heck is an IDN and why you should care

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Here’s a new article I’ve written for UX Magazine on the emergence of internationalized domain names (IDNs). I view IDNs as an inevitable (albeit awkward) evolution of the Internet.

And here are the previous two articles I’ve written for UX Magazine:

 

The Mr. Potato Head global gateway

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I was happy to discover recently that a toy that I loved as a child — Mr. Potato Head — is still alive and well.

Not only that, but Mr. Potato Head is the star attraction on the Hasbro global gateway:

Hasbro’s global gateway is not all fun and games. It’s actually quite effective.

For starters, the languages are properly presented in their native languages. This may seem obvious to regular readers of this blog, but there are still many companies out there that don’t get this practice correct.

The sort order of the languages may seem curious — Russian and Greek falling near the end of the list; these are non-Latin scripts, which are often sorted after the A-Z sort. This is not necessarily a best practice, but it is a fairly consistent practice — something I delve into more in my book.

As for the map, normally, I like maps to be clickable — as that’s what users often do when they see a map. But the overlay of my good friend Mr. Potato Head makes it clear that this map is only decorative.

To get to this global gateway page, users must select a global gateway link. Fortunately, Hasbro is wise enough to position this link in the upper right corner of most web pages, as shown below:

You’ll also notice the use of a globe icon, which makes the global gateway easy to find regardless of the user’s native language.

So if you’re meeting resistance within your company when it comes to improving your global gateway, tell everyone to spend a minute or two with Mr. Potato Head. Perhaps he’ll set them straight.

 

 

3M: Many brands sharing one global gateway

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3M finished in the top 10 of the 2011 Web Globalization Report Card. Its global gateway strategy is one reason why it scored so highly.

But what’s particularly impressive about 3M is how the company has reused its global gateway across various brand web sites.

Here are four distinct brand web sites, all which make use of the same gateway:

Post It Notes

3M Pocket Projector

Scotch Brite

And Command Brand

A number of other 3M sites also make use of this template.

It’s also important to note that these gateways share centralized source code, so changes can be easily rolled out across all gateways. This is a smart and sophisticated model.

The “not invented here” syndrome is particularly acute in large multinationals. Separate divisions, separate budgets, and separate locales all contribute to the desire to start from scratch when developing a web presence for brands. Which makes what 3M has accomplished all the more impressive.