I was interviewed recently by Paul Sawers of The Next Web.
He wrote a great article about the challenges and opportunities of web internationalization. I recommend sending this link to anyone who thinks web globalization is a simple matter of translation.
Here’s the article.
I’m always amazed when I come across global gateways that I find complicated in my native language.
Like Delta Airline‘s global gateway.
What you see here is not one but two pull-down menus. First you select your country, then language. And don’t you dare try to touch that language menu because it doesn’t work until you select a country.
I’m serious.
And what about that “Worldwide Sites” link below the menus? Don’t you dare click that link because you’ll end up on a page that basically says this:
Translation: You shouldn’t have clicked the Worldwide Sites link; Now go back and start over.
I’m not making this up. I have no idea why there is a Worldwide Sites link.
I’m not trying to pick on only Delta here. For some reason, a number of airline web sites are suddenly in love with these two-part pull-down menus. I wrote about this earlier.
For more of my rants on global gateways, check out The Art of the Global Gateway.
And to see how Delta rated against other airline web sites, check out the Web Globalization Report Card.
How’s this for a visibly engaging global gateway:
It’s the landing page for Protest Boardwear — a Netherlands-based clothing outfit.
Unfortunately, the map itself isn’t clickable, which violates a cardinal rule of global gateways. If you display a map on your web site, expect people to click on it. It’s just what people do. In this case, we’re expected to click on the flags in the footer of the page.
Also interesting: The company makes prominent use the EU domain name: www.protest.eu. There’s been much talk about how .EU has failed as a domain. I don’t agree. The .EU domain is five years old and has more than 3 million registrations. Based purely on registrations, it is one of the 10 most popular domains ever. But based on companies hosting and promoting the .EU domain, it has been far less successful, which is where I believe the criticism stems from. But I still wouldn’t call it a failure. The domain provides a unique address for pan-European sites, and it can be quite valuable for companies that aren’t yet hosting sites for all members of the European Union. While I don’t view .EU become more important than a .DE or .FR, it does have a role to play for companies expanding across Europe.
For more on global gateways, check out The Art of the Global Gateway.
Airbnb is one of the hot new travel web service startups.
It basically lets you rent out your spare bedroom or look for a spare bedroom when you travel. That’s how it started out; now it is expanding to include luxury home rentals.
It is also expanding around the world, which has given rise to an ugly “mutant flag” in its global gateway.
Here it is in the Airbnb header:
It’s that hybrid British-American flag. I wasn’t aware that our two nations had merged recently.
But seriously, I don’t doubt that that people “get” what this mutant flag is trying to convey — English.
And yet the use of flags to denote language is almost always a bad idea.
Because if you scroll down the list you run into another world language — Spanish.
And yet this language is denoted by only the flag of Spain. Should this flag also be a mutant flag, with pieces of flags from Mexico, Argentina, and other countries blended in?
That’s the inherent flaw of using flags to denote language. Whatever usability gains you may see by people recognizing their country’s flag is outweighed by the fact that so many other flags must be left off. There are many English-speaking countries and yet only two are represented by the mutant flag.
As an alternative, I recommend leaving the languages in their native language (as Airbnb already does), and adding a globe icon at the top of the menu (to let people know there are options available).
On a positive note, Airbnb wisely makes use of language negotiation — detecting the web browser language setting and responding with the matching language (if available). I’ve written about how this really pays off for mobile web browsers.
For more on global gateways, check out The Art of the Global Gateway.
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