Notes: Please add your name, if you contribute, to the 'Authors' section at the bottom of this file. DO NOT COPY AND PASTE THIS FILE WHOLESALE. IT MAKES IT SLOW. Export it or save it as text. 16/06/2006 11:45 - 12:45 Internationalisation: Awakening The Sleeping Giant by Molly E. Holzschlag In a short period of time, we will all be challenged by the issues of internationalisation. How I came to be here is a curious story. I was in Boston giving a presentation. W3C asked if I'd like to work in this area. I knew fuck all in that area. My specialisation has been more general web design. What interested me was the fact that my first experience… In 1993, I had the experience of having gone onto BBSes, and I'd seen live chat and I was fascinated by the idea that I could be sat in my appartment and talk to people everywhere in the world. This idea fascinated me. My passion has nothing to do with HTML abilities; it has to do with the realisation that we're working in a global, world-wide web after all. We've been working in a Western-centric environment for a while, but that can't continue. It's amazing to be able to be a blogger in front of the world. So it's not about technical or practical experience that I come to you. It's with passion for the fact that we're a global culture. Why? Purchase power - Users are three times more likely to buy a product when they are addressed in their own language Customer service - costs drop when instructions are displayed in a user's native language Increased revenue - One large IT company discovered that a significant percentage of inquiries were coming from South Korea - they created a Korean website and revenues rose by 8 percent Better user experience - Proper i18n creates a much better user experience. And, we all know a better user experience means a happier user, and a happier user means on that will find value via your site Internationalisation dfn. - The design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localisation for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language. * Encourages design + development that removes barriers to local and international access * Is sometimes referred to as globalisation * Is often written i18n * Provides technology for features that facilitate local and international access: * Bidirectional content (bidi) * Provides technology for features relating to local, regional, language or culturally related concerns: * Date/time formats * Calendar localisation * Number formats and numeral systems * Personal names and forms of address * Seperates local content from main content so that localised alternatives can be loaded or based on user preference Localisation dfn. - The adaptation of a product, application, or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market * Often thought of only as a synonym for translation of the user interface and documentation, localisation is a substantially more complex issue. Poitns about localisation: how do you deal with multilingual society? Translation of words with no equivalent? Words can have different meaning given locale and language. In Belgium, everything has to be multilingual, and there is no master version to translate from: every version has to be released together. Retrofitting isn't good enough. chen.org has lots of advice for multi-language content dev. * Site customisation related to: * Numeric, date and time formats * Use of currency * Keyboard usage * Symbols, icons, and colour * Sensitivity to cultural perceptions in regards to language and visual images Web Standards and i18n: Best practices * Use structural, semantic markup * Seperate presentation using CSS * Seperate behaviour via JavaScript Structure * Internationalised sites rely on aspects of a document’s structural elements * Proper encoding * Use of lang and xml:lang attributes * Ability to manage monolingual as well as multilingual documents Semantic elements * Presentational HTML can wreak havoc for localised content * Using italics for ideographic text (such as Japanese) is hightly problematic since Japanese may use other forms of emphasis * Using emphasis is more appropriate because no matter the language [Example showing emphasis using 'dots' and 'slashes' above characters in Japanese] Semantic naming * Meaningful naming for class and ID values and microformats is particularly important: * Presentation will change from locale to locale * Choose naming on function rather than presentation as the function will unlikely change based on locale Transcending differences Culture dfn. - A system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. Cross cultural challenge It's very difficult for a person from one culture to understand the needs of another. When building international and local web sites, it's imperative to have a relationship with qualified representatives who can adequately represent the cultural values of the target market. Language * Localising language means: * Using the written and spoken language for the target audience (not necessarily the locale!) * Using time/date formats appropriately and consistently * Using jargon/slang only where appropriate to the target audience Text fragmentation Screen usage concerns * Different languages behave differently * Direction\ * Manage imagery * Use images that are relevant to the locale or topic * Think about the colors within the image * Think about text … Moving forward… Recap * i18n and l10n can dramatically improve exposure and revenue * Technical and social issues surrounding these are very complex * Beginning these of sites Check thsi out * w3/international * Join i18n group * Check WaSP -------------------------------- Authors: Steve Marshall: http://nascentguruism.com/