This document discusses strategies for planning an international user experience to save time and money. It emphasizes understanding technological considerations like privacy laws and data formats across countries. Key terminology like internationalization, localization, and globalization is defined. Guidelines are provided for visual elements like typography, icons, colors and numbers to ensure cultural appropriateness. Conducting user research with international personas and validating designs with target audiences is recommended.

1. Planning for an
international
audience to save
time and money
Rachel Peña
#UXPA2016
www.uxpa2016.org
Session Survey: www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/349
Conference Survey: www.uxpa2016.org/survey

2. Rachel Peña
rachel@ldschurch.org

3. Broaden your
horizons

6. World Population (人=1 million people)

7. World Languages (by number of native speakers)
and there are
6,889
languages
not listed here
(not counting dialects)
1. Chinese
2. Spanish
3. English
4. Arabic
5. Hindi (India)
6. Bengali (Bangladesh)
7. Portuguese
8. Russian
9. Japanese
10. German
11. Javanese (Indonesia)
12. Lahnda (Pakistan)
13. Telugu (India)
14. Vietnamese
15. Marathi (India)
16. French
17. Korean
18. Tamil (India)
19. Italian
20. Urdu (Pakistan)

8. Know the Rules

10. Privacy and Data Protection by Country
http://heatmap.forrestertools.com/

11. Understand the
Technological
Considerations

17. Understand the
Users

18. International
Personas

19. Make a solid plan

20. Potential Costs
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
1 Language 2 Languages 10 Languages
No I18N
Full I18N
Exponential Increase in Cost

21. Or you get what you get

22. Know the
Terminology

23. I18N
L10N
G11N

24. Definitions
Internationalization is the process of designing a
software application so that it can be adapted to various
languages and regions without engineering changes.
Internationalization (I18N)
Localization is the process of adapting internationalized
software for a specific region or language by adding
locale-specific components and translating text.
Localization (L10N)
Globalization is the process of creating content for
acceptance by a broader global audience.
Globalization (G11N)

25. Build a Flexible
Framework

29. Typography and
Language
Considerations

30. What is Unicode?
Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
no matter what the platform, no matter what the
program, no matter what the language.
So what does that mean?
It means Peña doesn’t become Pe⎕a

31. Languages
families
Double byte Cyrillic Other languages
Japanese
Chinese
Korean
Roman
Russian
Bulgarian
Laotian
Farsi
Thai

32. Double byte
characters
A double-byte character set also known as an "expanded 8-
bit character set", is an extended single-byte character set,
implemented as a code page.

33. Cyrillic
languages
It is the basis of alphabets used in various languages,
past and present, in parts of the Balkans and Northern
Eurasia, especially those of Slavic origin, and non-Slavic
languages influenced by Russian. Cyrillic is one of the
top 5 used writing systems in the world.

34. Other
languages
More than 30 major unique writing scripts for languages
exist in the world.

35. Languages
expansion
Separate presentation and content, so that font sizes, line
heights, etc. can be easily adapted for translated text. You
should also bear these ideas in mind when designing
database field widths in character lengths.

36. Expansion chart
For most languages, it is generally safe to prepare
for as much as 25%-35% expansion.
Remember that the actual expansion percentages
will change depending on the subject matter,
writing style, and sentence or string length.
Very short strings of text can expand as much as
100%-300% in length, and longer passages will
often expand at the following estimated rates:

37. Expansion chart
Expansion & Contraction Percentages for Translation
Language From English To English
Albanian +15% -5% to -15%
Arabic +20% to +25% -20% to -25%
Burmese +15% -5% to -15%
Catalan +15% -5% to -15%
Croatian +15% -5% to -15%
Czech +10% -5% to -10%
Danish -10% to -15% +10% to +15%
Estonian +15% -5% to -15%
Finnish -25% to -30% +30% to +40%
Flemish +10% -5% to -10%
French +15% to +20% -10% to -15%
German +10% to +35% -20% to +20%
Greek 10% -5% to -15%
Hebrew -20% to -30% +20% to +30%
Hindi +15% to +35% -15%
Italian +10% to +25% -15%
Japanese -10% to -55% +20% to +60%
Korean -10% to -15% +15% to +20%
Norwegian -5% to -10% +5% to +10%
Polish +20% to +30% -5% to -15%
Portuguese +15% to +30% -5% to -15%
Russian +15% -5% to -15%
Spanish +15% to +30% -5% to -15%
Swedish -10% +10%
Thai +15% -5% to -15%

38. Considering the
Data Details

39. Basic Form Layout
First Name:
First Name:Or Stacked
In-line

40. When Translated…
Nombre de Pila:Or Stacked
In-line Nombre de Pila:

41. Cultural variation in name structures
Structure
Given Middle Family Suffix
Double family names
Single-word names
(Mononyms)
Multiple names, none of
Which are historic family
names passed from
generation to generation
Places used
Many, with slight variations
Spanish and Portuguese
Parts of Indonesia, India,
Pakistan
Ethiopia:
Names includes lineage ( 3 or 7
Generations of mononyms )
Arabic Countries:
Includes patronym, reference to
First-born son, personal
description, occupation or tribe
Scandinavian:
Patronyms used in place of a
family name.
Example
Martin Luther King Jr.
Gonzalo Alberto Peña Solórzano
Sugiantoro
YakovLebna Nadew Negasi
Mekdim Bekele Mihretu
Abu Karrim Muhammad al-Jamil
Ibn Nidal ibn Abdulaziz al-Filistini
Jón Olafsson
Kristin Jónsdóttir

42. Other Considerations
• Length of names
• Relative importance of name elements
• Life events that trigger name changes
• Need for additional name versions
- Pronunciation for Japanese names
- Alternative names, such as preferred names
“Bob Smith” = “Robert James Smith III”
“Simon Fong” = “Fong Yat Ming” = 方一鳴
- Historical names (e.g. Maiden names)

43. Standard address form

44. How do you put this
address there?
Lomas de La Trinidad
Carretera Vía Las Minas,
Cruce con C. San Rafael, Qta. Katy
Caracas 1080
Venezuela

45. Calendars & Dates
AsiaNorth America
Europe, South
America
Hebrew date:
Islamic date:
Afghan date:
25th of Iyyar, 5776
25 Sha’ban, 1437
13 Jawza, 1395
06/02/16

46. Phone numbers
Country Example Digits
Australia (0403) 416 7216 11
Brazil (97) 8723-8967 10
China 190-6587-1234 11
France 06 87 71 23 45 10
Norway 24 56 76 34 8
United Kingdom 07700 954 321 11
United States (801) 373-7337 10

47. Number Display
Country Format
France 1 234 567,89
Germany 1.234.567,89
India 12,34,567.89
Switzerland 1'234'567.89
United States 1,234,567.89

48. Being aware
of the Visuals

50. Meanings of colors change
Very few colors hold the same meaning across
cultures
Passion is
represented
by Red in
multiple locales
But Courage can be
represented by Red,
Orange or Yellow
depending on where
you live

52. Icon and symbol selection
“Symbolism can be culture-specific. The
check mark means correct or OK in many
countries. In some countries, however, such
as Japan, it can be used to mean that
something is incorrect. Japanese localizers
may need to convert check marks to circles
(their symbol for 'correct') as part of the
localization process.”
http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/i18n

53. Know your Audience

54. Content Strategy
for Multiple
Languages

55. Minimum Viable Product
Graceful Degradation

56. Validate with the
Intended Users

59. Thanks
http://bit.ly/1RT53JO
Rachel Peña
rachel@ldschurch.org