RE: Revised gateway FAQ

At 02:39 04/12/25, Addison Phillips [wM] wrote:
 >
 >Hi,
 >
 >I have some comments on this FAQ.
 >
 >1. I think it mixes up several different applications for a "pull down"
 >which should be kept separate:
 >
 >  - Selecting the language of the current content (i.e. "show me this site
 >in French")
 >  - Selecting a different site or section of a site targeted to a different
 >country audience (i.e. "show me the site for France")
 >  - Selecting formatting and other preferences, possibly as a combination
 >of the above (i.e. "show me information on this site formatted using the
 >French/France locale")
 >
 >These are not the same application and the best practices here only apply
 >(I think) to one of them (the middle one).

I agree halfway with Addison here. Often, these three are combined.
Most formatting usually goes hand-in-hand with the language. And
there is usually only a small combination of courtry/language pairs.
How much a site empazises language or country may depend on business;
amazon for example is very much language-oriented (e.g. they ship
French books everywhere in the world from their French(France) site,
but you order in French) because the product is language-oriented
and the business isn't legally tied to a country. Things might be
much more country-oriented for e.g. a company offering legal services,
or a big global company that is traditionally organized in per-country
subsidiaries. But having more than one 'global gateway' doesn't
make sense.

So I think the FAQ should mention both language and country, but
should defer the exact relationship between them maybe to a separate
FAQ. And I don't think it should mention formatting conventions,
in this context, they are (or should be) a detail.

 >2. The word "locale" is used sloppily and without introduction. In fact, I
 >think the first occurrence:
 >
 >One
 >of the more popular devices is a pull-down menu on the home page that
 >includes links to the other locales.

Yes, I think 'locales' should be replaced with something like
'languages/countries'.

 >Really refers to the other use of the word "locale", meaning something like
 >a country site and not a software locale. The word locale, to the extent
 >possible, should be expunged or very clearly handled, since the target
 >audience is not other I18N-aware folks such as ourselves.
 >
 >3. The phrase "silver bullet" is not a globally accessible metaphor.
 >Depending on your culture you need to know either the Lone Ranger or all
 >about werewolves, I suppose?

Yes. It's a true (but somewhat sad) fact that globally oriented
English has to abstain from most metaphors.

 >4. The question's phrasing is awkward:
 >
 >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?
 >
 >Might I suggest:
 >
 >What are the best practices for using a pull-down menu to direct visitors
 >to a country- or language-specific content (such as a country Web site)?
 >
 >I think this makes more sense because not all websites belong to a company.
 >Also "country Web sites" are not always what is being accessed.

Agreed, except that the phrase in parentheses can probably go;
the title is already very long.

 >And point out the need to include ASCII or English identifiers or use
 >bilingual entries in the list. If the site is available in multiple
 >languages it sometimes makes sense to make the drop down accessible to
 >users in the current page language too. For example:
 >
 >  日本 (Japan)
 >  USA
 >  France
 >  Deutschland (Germany)

you say "it sometimes makes sense". When/why?

 >Although RFC 3066 or ISO 3166 identifiers are sometimes used for this
 >purpose, I would tend to caution against them because they are in many
 >cases obscure to users.

Yes.

Regards,    Martin.

Received on Thursday, 30 December 2004 07:16:30 UTC