Re: Revised gateway FAQ

On Dec 23, 2004, at 10:37 PM, Martin Duerst wrote:

> Hello John,
>
> Great work! Some comments below; if something has
> already been discussed, please tell me.
>
> At 09:34 04/12/23, John Yunker wrote:
> >Hi all,
> >
> >Based on input from the call today, here is the revised text and 
> image attachments.
> >
> >
> >------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >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?
>
> Is this the only FAQ on Global Gateways that we will ever have? If not,
> I suggest to thange the title to "FAQ Global Gateway Pulldown" or some 
> such.
>
Good point. I expect there will be others on this topic.

> > 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.
>
> This is somehow given in the background, but should probably also 
> appear in the
> answer: A pull-down menu can very well be a good solution! [i.e. say 
> things
> positively rather than just let the reader infer that if the concerns 
> don't apply,
> it's a good solution (or, if you don't think it's that a good solution 
> in general,
> say so more clearly)]
>
> >However, if you do decide to use a pull-down menu, here are some best 
> practices to keep in mind:
>
> Probably leave out the "However,", or reword more positively, such as 
> simply
> "When using a pull-down menu,..."
>
> >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)
>
> map -> world map? (coul be any map otherwise)
> "Over time, the globe icon could be as widely recognized": Can we say 
> something
> like "The globe icon is more and more getting recognized ..., "? I.e., 
> can
> we express this in a way that says that it's already starting to be 
> recognized
> rather than say that we are not yet there?
>
> >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 "Fran軋is."
>
> This needs to more clearly indicate that each language label is 
> supposed to be
> in the target language.
>
> >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)
>
> What about numeric character references? In a decent browser, these are
> supposed to work as well as the actual (e.g. UTF-8 encoded) characters.
> Pull-downs, similar to title bars, often have more limitations than the
> page itself, but this is usually due to the browsers calling the system
> widgets, and these in turn using the system character encoding rather
> than Unicode (in particular on older systems or when not using 
> wide-character
> APIs). But in this case, this is not an encoding issue, and should not
> affect what ultimately shows up in the pull-down.
> There are other browsers (in partilar Netscape 4) that do not correctly
> interpret numeric character references, but these browsers should be
> ignorable by now.
Good point. My only concern is that the process of converting 
characters to their numeric equivalents would probably merit an FAQ of 
its own. But this probably should be mentioned as a workaround.

Thanks.
JY
>
>
> Regards,    Martin.

Received on Friday, 24 December 2004 15:22:06 UTC