Usability and Internationalization of Information Technology

by Nuray Aykin (Editor)

Overview

Contributors from the US, Europe, and Asia provide a theoretical foundation and practical examples and guidelines for designing information technology for different cultures, languages, and economic standings, describing methods that can be used to ensure their usability across cultural boundaries. Case studies describe research on cross-cultural design for children in a cyber setting, user requirements in mainland China, and travel planning on the Web. Aykin is affiliated with Siemens Corporate Research. Annotation © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781410611093
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	07/06/2004
Series:	Human Factors and Ergonomics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
Lexile:	1340L (what's this?)
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Nuray Aykin

Table of Contents

	Series Foreword	xiii
	Foreword to Book	xv
	Preface	xix
Part 1	Introduction and Cultural Considerations
1.	Overview: Where to Start and What to Consider	3
	How and where to start?	3
	Why internationalization and localization?	4
	Terminology	4
	The Globalization process	5
	Globalization teams: A need for change in the organization	7
	Internationalization and localization team roles	8
	Legal issues	15
	Summary	19
	References	19
2.	Practical Issues and Guidelines for International Information Display	21
	International information display	21
	Graphics and icons	22
	Language: Rendering and translating	23
	Data object formatting	34
	Color	46
	Layout	49
	Summary	49
	References	49
3.	User Interface Design and Culture	51
	Introduction	51
	Mapping dimensions to components	58
	Future study of culture in relation to user interface design	64
	Conclusions	67
	Acknowledgments	68
	References	68
4.	Synthesizing the Literature on Cultural Values	79
	Introduction	79
	The advantages of intercultural communication theories for HCI design	80
	Edward T. Hall: Chronemics, proxemics, and context	83
	Edward C. Stewart and Milton J. Bennett: Subjective and objective culture	86
	John C. Condon and Fathi S. Yousef: Extending the value orientations approach	89
	Geert Hofstede: The durability of the "Software of the Mind"	91
	Harry C. Triandis: Adding culture to social psychology	95
	William B. Gudykunst: Building a unified theory of communication	98
	Fons Trompenaars: Culture hits the best-seller list	103
	David Victor: Capturing intercultural communication in a mnemonic	111
	Summary	114
	Future directions	115
	Conclusion	117
	References	117
5.	Managing Multicultural Content in the Global Enterprise	123
	Introduction and the ideal enterprise	123
	Challenges to successful globalization	127
	Best practices	131
	The details of implementing best practices	136
	Workflow and process automation	146
	Linguistic technologies	151
	Translation service providers	153
	Overview and conclusions	154
Part 2	Design Issues and Usability Engineering
6.	Graphics: The Not Quite Universal Language	157
	Introduction	157
	Why use graphics if they are not universal?	158
	Select an approach	158
	First, globalize	160
	Second, localize	178
	Summary	184
	References	186
7.	"Sunday in Shanghai, Monday in Madrid?!": Key Issues and Decisions in Planning International User Studies	189
	Introduction	189
	Selecting where to go	191
	Arranging for research resources in-country	196
	Modifying a recruiting strategy and screener to reflect local cultural issues	200
	Preparing or adapting the protocol and/or test plan	204
	Arranging for translation	206
	Training local facilitators and preparing facilities	208
	Multicountry studies: serial or parallel?	211
	Conclusions	212
	References	212
8.	Cost-Justifying Usability Engineering for Cross-Cultural User Interface Design	213
	Introduction	213
	Framework for cost justification	220
	Sample cost-benefit analyses for cross-cultural usability engineering projects	223
	Summary and conclusions	245
	Acknowledgments	248
	References	248
Part 3	Case Studies
9.	Cross-Cultural Design for Children in a Cyber Setting	253
	Introduction	253
	Positive indicators of children's usage of new media	255
	Issues surrounding cyber design	259
	Case Study: KidsCom.com development experiences	264
	References	276
10.	Intercultural Human-Machine Systems: Empirical Study of User Requirements in Mainland China	277
	Introduction	277
	Approach to intercultural human-machine system design	278
	INTOPS-2: Intercultural human-machine system design for the Chinese market	282
	Selected results of the investigation in China	292
	Conclusions on human-machine system design for the Chinese market	307
	Acknowledgments	310
	References	310
11.	Travel Planning on the Web: A Cross-Cultural Case Study	313
	Introduction	313
	Applied methods	317
	Results	320
	Interpretation of cross-country results	336
	Summary and conclusions	342
	Acknowledgments	343
	References	343
	Appendix	345
	Author Index	351
	Subject Index	357

Editorial Reviews

"This is a wide-ranging book, attempting to bring internationalization and usability closer together in a meaningful way through the medium of 'culture'."

—Multilingual Computing & Technology

"This book is concerned (in a commercial context) with how globalization will affect web-based technology. Readers involved with web sites need to buy this book!"
—British Journal of Educational Technology

Nuray Aykin has put together an anthology of articles on these issues. The 11 articles in Usability and Internationalization of Information Technology range from theory to research to very practical advise. The advantage of such an anthology is that you can choose what is most useful to you at any given moment and come back again and again to delve deeper as your interests grow or change."
—Technical Communication

From the Publisher