Comments on: Retooling Usability for the Spanish Onslaught http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/ The usability blog of John S. Rhodes Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:18:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: Learn Languages Online http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-128753 Sat, 29 Sep 2007 17:17:39 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-128753 It really does look like America might be in need of some Spanish classes by reading some of these comments. Good post. It really does look like America might be in need of some Spanish classes by reading some of these comments. Good post.

]]> by: WebWord » Blog Archive » Retooling Usability for the Spanish Onslaught (Part II) http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-39384 Sun, 03 Dec 2006 17:51:58 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-39384 [...] Retooling Usability for the Spanish Onslaught (Part I) [...] […] Retooling Usability for the Spanish Onslaught (Part I) […]

]]> by: Nelson Rodríguez-Peña http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-39175 Fri, 01 Dec 2006 23:26:02 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-39175 This should certainly be a concern particularly in the US. In South America, specifically in Chile, where I live, we have a small, but growing market for usability. And a small comunity of practitioners. A couple of weeks ago we had an Information Architecture retreat organized by <a href="http://mantruc.com" rel="nofollow">Javier Velasco</a>. Jorge Arango was here, among 10 Brazilian people, Peter Morville, Peter Merholz and Gene Smith, plus 20-something Chileans. Certainly we all do AI, usability, interaction design, but this is what we can do in our market, you know, jack of all trades. But I got the feeling that this is growing and becoming more attractive as a business. As our guests from the neighborhood said, we are somewhat ahead in terms of the development of a community and the professional level. My 2 pesos. This should certainly be a concern particularly in the US. In South America, specifically in Chile, where I live, we have a small, but growing market for usability. And a small comunity of practitioners.

A couple of weeks ago we had an Information Architecture retreat organized by Javier Velasco. Jorge Arango was here, among 10 Brazilian people, Peter Morville, Peter Merholz and Gene Smith, plus 20-something Chileans. Certainly we all do AI, usability, interaction design, but this is what we can do in our market, you know, jack of all trades. But I got the feeling that this is growing and becoming more attractive as a business. As our guests from the neighborhood said, we are somewhat ahead in terms of the development of a community and the professional level.

My 2 pesos.

]]> by: Varanas http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-31606 Thu, 26 Oct 2006 07:10:05 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-31606 Fascinating numbers on those sites-- I had no idea that Japanese already outnumbers English as far as blog and discussion sites. Hindi is slowly growing but has a long way to go. Mandarin Chinese will soon be the dominant language of the Internet. I don't know about usability issues abroad, but here in California and the Southwest we've already been dealing with that as far as Spanish. In this region, remember, Spanish has coequal status with English in the public as well as the private sphere-- a long series of treatises and laws since about 140 years has established that and so professional web designers and, obviously, businesspeople in this region really do need to provide for competent Spanish rendering to run their businesses on the Web and stay in business. So as a result, a large industry in California and Arizona has grown up to provide Spanish-language usability services. Even in back office usability centers abroad such as India, Spanish fluency (and French and German to a lesser extent) are is rapidly increasing. Fascinating numbers on those sites– I had no idea that Japanese already outnumbers English as far as blog and discussion sites. Hindi is slowly growing but has a long way to go. Mandarin Chinese will soon be the dominant language of the Internet.

I don’t know about usability issues abroad, but here in California and the Southwest we’ve already been dealing with that as far as Spanish. In this region, remember, Spanish has coequal status with English in the public as well as the private sphere– a long series of treatises and laws since about 140 years has established that and so professional web designers and, obviously, businesspeople in this region really do need to provide for competent Spanish rendering to run their businesses on the Web and stay in business. So as a result, a large industry in California and Arizona has grown up to provide Spanish-language usability services. Even in back office usability centers abroad such as India, Spanish fluency (and French and German to a lesser extent) are is rapidly increasing.

]]> by: Thomas Baekdal http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-31547 Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:28:37 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/10/25/retooling-usability-for-the-spanish-onslaught/#comment-31547 This is indeed a serious problem. I live in Europe, and apart from England, everyone has to learn english in order to understand our websites. And, Spainish may be a concern for USA, but I am more concerned about Asia's languages. The rise of technology here coupled with an gazillion people, who do not speak english very well, has the potential to change the technology world altogether. A few interesting links: http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000433.html http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/cs/blogs/mfle/archive/2006/05/01/660.aspx Too me the biggest problem in terms of usability is not the language, but culture. We have a wildly different way of doing things than people in Asia, the Middle East and to a lesser extend in South America. The perfectly usable workflow that we use, might be perfectly annoying in Asia. The insanly useful and compact AJAX application, will in the Middle East be bloated and confusing (in this case because everything is left-to-right, and since Arabic languages fonts are much larger). We need to better cultural understand, because the advice western usability practisioners give, might not apply to non-western practitioners. This is indeed a serious problem. I live in Europe, and apart from England, everyone has to learn english in order to understand our websites.

And, Spainish may be a concern for USA, but I am more concerned about Asia’s languages. The rise of technology here coupled with an gazillion people, who do not speak english very well, has the potential to change the technology world altogether.

A few interesting links:
http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000433.html
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/cs/blogs/mfle/archive/2006/05/01/660.aspx

Too me the biggest problem in terms of usability is not the language, but culture. We have a wildly different way of doing things than people in Asia, the Middle East and to a lesser extend in South America.

The perfectly usable workflow that we use, might be perfectly annoying in Asia. The insanly useful and compact AJAX application, will in the Middle East be bloated and confusing (in this case because everything is left-to-right, and since Arabic languages fonts are much larger).

We need to better cultural understand, because the advice western usability practisioners give, might not apply to non-western practitioners.

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