RE: Gateway FAQ comments

My comment on this section at the bottom
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FAQ: > 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)

===
AP: 8. I don't agree with including example shots of other folk's
websites. I think we'd be better off mocking up examples, since
commercial sites change design format.

RI: I think this is a difficult one.  Showing real applications creates
immediacy and interest for the reader, and shows that this is not purely
theoretical.  On the other hand, they can indeed become out of date or
even contradicted by later practise on the same site.  On the third
hand, there are very few sites that do everything perfectly, and this is
one in my mind, since it includes text in English too.  I think we need
more discussion.

SM: If we do decide to include them (I admit to reservations, despite
Richard's point re: reader interest being very true), I don't think that
the Philips example is the one to use as the pull-down lists, for
example, "italian" instead of "italiano" and therefore may contradict
another best practice in this FAQ.

Received on Tuesday, 25 January 2005 00:44:53 UTC