Many companies utilize localization vendors to translate their software, documentation, and help because of the level of expertise that is needed to get a finished quality product on time and within budget. Those three factors (quality, time and budget) are the foundation of the localization industry, thus a company that attempts to translate their own work is at risk at getting an end product that has poor quality, runs over budget, and has numerous delays in getting to market.

These same risks are inherent in designing a multilingual website as well. It would be impossible for us to relate all the knowledge that an experienced localization website developer knows regarding the creation of a multilingual website. With that in mind, we will attempt to give an overview of some of the more critical issues that need to be considered when developing your own multilingual website.

Implement a Glossary and Style Guide

Design with Localization in Mind

Graphics Designed for Localization

Graphics Issues

There are four general categories of imagery that can introduce cultural conflict:

1. People – areas of particular sensitivity include gender, gender relationship, ethnic dress and hand gestures.
2. Animals – many cultures revere particular animals for religious reasons, have domesticated them as pets, or simply consider particular animals to be dirty creatures.
3. Everyday Objects – many everyday objects have different shapes in different countries, two examples are mailboxes and trashcans.
4. Religious Symbols – this category can vary from religious icons to particular numbers to specific animals that have religious significance.

Choice of Colors

Colors run the risk of being interpreted poorly by your target audience. The reasons for this may be cultural, regional, and/or ethnic.

The following table was taken from Nancy Hoft’s book "International Technical Communication". She states that this table “maps colors to their possible cultural interpretations…”

COLOR TARGET COUNTRY OR AUDIENCE AND RESPONSE OR INTERPRETATION

red	Thailand – most popular color China – prosperity, rebirth Malaysia – valor and might Ivory Coast – mourning (dark red) U.K. – first place France and the United Kingdom – masculinity U.S. – power, stop, danger India – procreation, life Many African countries – blasphemy or death
green	Many countries – environmentally sound or safe Thailand – least favorite color Muslims – favorite color of the Prophet Mohammed U.S. – proceeds, capitalism, envy Republic of Ireland – patriotism Countries that have dense and green jungles – disease France, the Netherlands, and Sweden – cosmetics
black	Thailand – old age and death Malays of Malaysia – courage Malaysian Indians – evil Malaysians of Chinese descent – death U.S. and many European countries – death
orange	Thailand – religion Northern Ireland – patriotism
white	Thailand – purity Muslim and Hindus – purity and peace Japan and many Asian countries – death and mourning Christians – purity, faith, innocence, virginity
blue	Thailand – no meaning associated with this color Malays – beauty and liberty Malays of Indian and Chinese descent – grief and sadness Ghana – joy Iran – negative Egypt – truth U.S. – equipment that reduces the possibility of physical injury, first place (excellence) Many European countries – calming, sleep Hopi Indians – sacred religious significance
yellow	China – joy and wealth, rank and authority Malaysia – royal color U.S. – caution, possibility of physical danger Many countries around the world – femininity Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – happiness and generally positive connotations
purple	Latin America – death Europe and the Middle East – royalty China – barbarous
pink	U.S. - femininity

Site Development

At the design stage, moving forward without a localization consultant could be a costly mistake. There are too many variables that cannot be thoroughly discussed here that deal with specific multilingual conditions such as bi-directional text, database driven content, fonts, etc.

1. Objectives – define and develop the strategies necessary to meet your business objectives and match your visions
2. Prototyping – review the sites of your competitors and some of the major multilingual websites (www.microsoft.com, www.msnbc.com, www.cnet.com, www.zdnet.com, www.symantec.com). Note if and how their page layouts and graphics differ from language site to language site. Also note their color choices on each language site.
3. Development – develop the website. Create the content outline and assemble the raw materials needed for content. Determine the navigation scheme, logos, graphics, and scripts for automation.
4. Implementation – complete the content development. Set up the server hardware and software (or make arrangements for hosting). Build the testing site.
5. Testing – thoroughly test the site both internally and externally. Assure that your localization vendor has tested it as well.
6. Production – move the testing site to a live site
7. Post-Production Review - thoroughly review the site both internally and externally. Assure that your localization vendor has reviewed it as well.

Site Design

One of the largest challenges in designing a multilingual website is the design. Most companies would prefer that the sites have an integrated look and feel rather than the appearance of many different websites lumped together at one address. This will prove to be quite challenging – to find a healthy balance between universality and cultural specificity. Begin by developing a simple design without cultural details, and then let it flow into your other language sites.

Multilingualism in HTML

Multilingualism (or multilinguism, as some people prefer it) is the creation and maintenance of a document in multiple languages. There may be one master document with (machine or human) translations, or several language documents to be aligned or compared.

When a document is available in a variety of languages, and the translations are more or less aligned, it should be possible to create links automatically among the different versions, or to create multi-headed links that target all of the versions at the same time.

Putting Language Attributes in HTML

It's a good idea to label your documents with the language they are written in. Some browsers don't care, but more advanced browsers, and especially editors with spell checkers, can use the information. It is also expected that as technology advances more and more other Web applications will be able to use the information, including search engines that will search for documents in a particular language.

Pointing to Translated Documents

The HTML code uses a simple scheme that will allow you to add links to translations (or just to related documents in other languages) in the HEAD of your document. More advanced schemes have been developed as well, however they will most likely be useful for people managing large collections of documents.

Language Tagging in HTML and XML

Language codes can be (and should be) used to indicate the language of text in HTML and XML documents. For HTML 4.0, language codes are specified with the “lang” attribute. For XML, language codes are given in the “xml:lang” attribute. In both cases, language information is inherited along the document hierarchy, i.e. it has to be given only once if the whole document is in one language, and language information nests, i.e. inner attributes overwrite outer attributes.

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