For lively discussion and valuable information about localization, join the Localization Professional Linkedin group, http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=44105&trk=anet_ug_hm
Today’s discussion yields extensive information about the meaning of color in various cultures, to build on the chart in “Color Meanings by Culture” posted at http://www.globalization-group.com/edge/resources/color-meanings-by-culture/
The article “Avoiding Ambiguity: Understanding the Need for a Controlled Vocabulary” by Scott Abel reflects some of the conversations of ITC members at the SIG business meeting in May at the 2010 STC Summit.
Link: http://www.enewsbuilder.net/techcommanager/e_article001771573.cfm?x=b11,0,w
Emotional and persuasive perception of fonts
Juni S, Gross JS. New York University, Department of Applied Psychology, NY 10003-6674, USA. sam.juni@nyu.edu
Journal: Percept Mot Skills. 2008 Feb;106(1):35-42.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to explore the latent affective and persuasive meaning attributed to text when appearing in two commonly used fonts. Two satirical readings were selected from the New York Times. These readings (one addressing government issues, the other education policy) were each printed in Times New Roman and Arial fonts of the same size and presented in randomized order to 102 university students, who ranked the readings on a number of adjective descriptors. Analysis showed that satirical readings in Times New Roman were perceived as more funny and angry than those in Arial, the combination of emotional perception which is congruent with the definition of satire. This apparent interaction of font type with emotional qualities of text has implications for marketing, advertising, and the persuasive literature.
For guidelines on using English effectively worlwide, consult Kohl’s Global English Style Guide, which has been reviewed.
The AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe publishes “ASD Simplified Technical English,” Specification ASD-STE100, European Community Trade Mark No. 004901195, International specification for the preparation of maintenance documentation in a controlled language. A consulting firm has assembled resources on this standard and offers training in many locations.
The challenges of selling stories for youth in many parts of the world and successsful techniques are the subject of an April 14, 2010 feature in Publishing Perspectives, “Selling Amanda Abroad.” This is a series of books and an interactive website.
The Handbook of Global User Research is described on the User Centric website at http://www.usercentric.com/handbook-global-user-research. You can view the table of contents at http://www.globaluserresearch.com/book/table-of-contents.
A two-part series covers the book publishing industry in China today. Part one discusses how Chinese books are sold in the Western world and provides insight into writing in China. The second article discusses how books from the Western world fare in the Chinese market.
Read about Lonie Goldsberry’s adventures in “Becoming a Successful Translation Manager,” a two-part article in Galaxy, the newsletter of GALA, in the fourth quarter 2009 and first quarter 2010 issues.
From early 1983 to November 1984, Don Philippi published a newsletter about translating Japanese to English. Take a look at how translation was thought about a quarter century ago.
An archive of these newsletters is available, as well as an article by Steve Vlasta about the newsletter and the man behind it. In Steve’s words, “Compared to the situation (in technical Japanese translaction) 25 years ago, some things have changed for better, some for worse, and some remain the same.’
There is a great article posted on the Colour Lovers blog about designing software interfaces and graphics with an awareness for color blindness. The article is written by Chris Campbell. As with most accessibility considerations, designing for those who are color blind makes graphics more effective for all users. In designing for international users, it’s also important to remember there are cultural differences in how people react to different colors.
“If you’re going to localize, make it visible in the search results,” advises Google in the March 19 post on the company’s Webmaster Central Blog. The post is “Working with multilingual websites.”
When you are creating a form, it’s necessary to consider users in countries other than your own. The UXmatters blog has a post about setting up address fields to accomodate international differences.
The Nielsen Norman group offers “E-commerce User Experience: Design Guidelines for International Users” (pdf, 2007). You can read about and download these guidelines. There is a charge for the download.
Successful internationalization does more than prepare a website for deployment across cultures and in different languages. There are a number of ways you can optimize your website for search in different regions, where language and culture affect the way people look for information. Read more in “Internationalizing websites for search success” in the December 2009 issue of Tekom’s TC World.
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