Revised gateway FAQ

Hi all,

Based on input from the call today, here is the revised text and image 
attachments.


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FAQ Global Gateway

 Question
What are the best practices for using a pull-down menu on my company's 
Web site to direct visitors to their country Web sites?

 Background
As companies launch an increasing number of localized Web sites, 
user-friendly global navigation grows in importance. The term "global 
gateway" is frequently used to refer to the visual and technical 
devices that Web sites employ to direct visitors to their content. One 
of the more popular devices is a pull-down menu on the home page that 
includes links to the other locales.

 Answer
The pull-down menu is not a silver bullet for global navigation and it 
may not be the best solution for your Web site. If your site supports 
only a handful of locales, it is better to avoid using a pull-down menu 
altogether and simply include links directly to each locale. Also, if 
your company offers more than 20 locales, a pull-down menu is not very 
usable for those Web users who must scroll to the end of the list.

However, if you do decide to use a pull-down menu, here are some best 
practices to keep in mind:

1. Locate the pull-down menu at the top of all Web pages, preferably to 
the right side. This location is highly visible, reducing the chance 
that the visitor will not see it. Furthermore, an increasing number of 
Web sites have located their global gateways in this location, 
conditioning Web users to come to expect it here.

 2. Include an icon of a globe or map next to the pull-down menu. You 
cannot expect Web users who are not fluent in English to understand 
"Select language." Universally recognized icons communicate to people 
regardless of what language they speak. Over time, the globe icon could 
be as widely recognized as the shopping cart icon. See the example 
below from the Philips Web site. (image: philips.jpg)

3. Translate the menu options as necessary. Instead of including a link 
on the pull-down menu that reads, for example, "French" the link should 
read "Français."

To display a mix of non-Latin languages, such as Arabic, Russian and 
Japanese, your Web page will need to support the UTF-8 (Unicode) 
encoding. Please note that if you do switch to UTF-8, the Web user must 
have a font that can display this range of scripts; most new operating 
systems do ship with such a font. Be aware that a Web user in the US, 
for example, may see empty boxes in place of the Japanese text while 
the user in Japan will see the text just fine.

If you do not want to change encodings, an alternative is to embed 
non-Latin text within graphics located outside of the pull-down menu, 
as demonstrated by the Symantec Web site. (image: symantec.gif)
 

John Yunker
Byte Level Research