Colors, Buttons, Words and Culture Designing Software for the Global Community.

Colors, Buttons, Words and Colors, Buttons, Words and CultureCulture

Designing Software for the Global

Community

Susan M. JohnsSusan M. Johns1997 CODI Conference1997 CODI Conference

Pittsburg State University

Axe Library

Pittsburg KS USA

[email protected]

February 6

April 12

April 23

May 5

May 17

July 10

Definition of CultureDefinition of Culture

Culture is the beliefs, value system, norms, mores, myths,and structural elements of a given organization, tribe, or society

More than mere language translation– Nakakoji

Cross-Cultural Cross-Cultural CommunicationCommunication

Develop user interfaces for products with a global market

When outsourcing to other countries, we work and communicate with people we have never met in person

Work culture values and views differ from our own

Technology As Cultural Technology As Cultural AmplifierAmplifier

“Although technologies transform culture and thought to amplify human productivity...a system’s functionality... is often unconsciously affected by the underlying traditions of the system designer’s culture.”– Nakakoji

““Sundials perform as clocks in Sundials perform as clocks in sunny climates -- they are moresunny climates -- they are moreuseful in Phoenix than in Bostonuseful in Phoenix than in Bostonand of no use at all during theand of no use at all during theArctic winter.”Arctic winter.”

Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, MIT Press, 1981Artificial, MIT Press, 1981

The Tale of Three InterfacesThe Tale of Three Interfaces

54 Americans 35 English-speaking citizens of other

nations 43 Males 46 Females

The Tale of Three Interfaces The Tale of Three Interfaces Designed ForDesigned For

(Design 1) English-speaking European adult male intellectuals

(Design 2) Caucasian-American women (Design 3) generic English-speaking

consumers of an “international-style”

The Tale of Three Interfaces The Tale of Three Interfaces Moral of the StoryMoral of the Story

There are no generic cultural guidelines Issues cannot be solved by using overly

generalized characterizations of user populations, and ...

The Tale of Three Interfaces The Tale of Three Interfaces Moral of the StoryMoral of the Story

Do users know what they want? Do users recognize what they have

designed (or requested)? Is the user the best indicator the vendor

has for developing the best design?

““Don’t boil the ocean.”Don’t boil the ocean.”

Malcolm Frank, Malcolm Frank, Be Quick or Be Dead, Be Quick or Be Dead, Software Magazine, March 1997Software Magazine, March 1997

Cross Cultural DevelopmentCross Cultural Development

Culture exists across professions End-users and developers share

cultural understanding Should users be able to state their

requirements clearly and precisely a priori when they simply do not have the knowledge to do so?

Cross Cultural DevelopmentCross Cultural Development

Software engineering and application domain knowledge work together

Develop knowledge among stakeholders

Exploit opportunities to establish successful cross cultural collaboration

The International NeedThe International Need

Customers want systems that use their own language and meet their own cultural conventions

Some countries require products to reflect their culture and language

Internationally competitive companies must consider cultural preferences of their customers

PeopleSoft Goes GlobalPeopleSoft Goes Global

Identify common processes around the world

Deliver languages and localizations Add global complexity with manageable

implementation

PeopleSoft Goes GlobalPeopleSoft Goes Global

Architecture for core functionality Understand local functions and cultures Use Customer SIGs

PeopleSoft Goes GlobalPeopleSoft Goes Global

Shorter implementation Customization times diminish Ongoing maintenance is reduced

PeopleSoft Goes GlobalPeopleSoft Goes Global

Global customers have more in common than differences

Vendor must understand what is different and what is similar

Everybody (vendors) is “Embarking”

What is InternationalizationWhat is Internationalization

The process of providing a computer system that handles a variety of language, country, and cultural conventions

Internationalization (I18N)Internationalization (I18N)

Eliminate cultural specifics Design culture-independent user

information and interfaces

User InformationUser Information

User Manuals Error Messages

Menu Labels Sound Messages

GraphicalRepresentations

Icons

What is LocalizationWhat is Localization

A locale is an operating system database of language and country conventions

Developing software to support multiple locales is Localization

Localization (L10N)Localization (L10N)

Localization of product for each user culture

Language, date and number formats Graphical representations/icons Color Physical flow of objects

System I18NSystem I18N

Uses multilingual products instead of monolingual or bilingual products

Allows switching between different locales and languages

Provides software that meets international standards

System I18N ChallengesSystem I18N Challenges

Treat English as just another language Use one program source for all

languages to reduce costs for maintenance and documentation

System I18N ChallengesSystem I18N Challenges

Plan for extra disk space needed. To save space, ship only the languages purchased by a customer

What is the delay from when the package is available in the vendor’s local country to when it is available in other languages?

System I18N ChallengesSystem I18N Challenges

Monitor acronyms and mnemonics for negative meanings in different languages

Understand differences among U.S., British, and global English

Be aware of different dialects in the same language

System I18N ChallengesSystem I18N Challenges

Use care when sorting lists Use numeric indexes instead of sorted

alphabetic indexes whenever possible Keep illustrations, tables, and figures

simple Verify translations back into English

Standards and the World of Standards and the World of Uni- and Zed-Uni- and Zed-

Unicode UNIMARC Z 39.50 Z 39.69 Z 39.70 Zzzzz...

History of UnicodeHistory of Unicode

ASCII, a “U.S.” Standard (ISO 646) DBCS - double byte character system

(some chars 1 byte, some 2 bytes) Unicode - all chars 2 bytes (16 bits)

History of UnicodeHistory of Unicode

Unicode is a subset of ISO 10646, as are ASCII and Latin-1 (8-bit ASCII)

Unicode eliminates duplicate Han characters in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK)

ISO 10646 stores chars in 4 bytes; Unicode stores chars in 2 bytes

Definition of UnicodeDefinition of Unicode

The Unicode standard is a fixed-width, 16-bit character encoding system that contains codes for every character needed by the major writing systems currently in use in the modern world, along with codes for a full range of punctuation, symbols, and control characters (Davis et al.)

Definition of UnicodeDefinition of Unicode

Punctuation marks Diacritical marks Uppercase, lowercase, and uncased

letters Characters used to represent digits Control characters

Unicode ProblemsUnicode Problems

Universal standards for dates, measurements, and money

Simplified encoding of Chinese characters does not depict “classical” Chinese

Storage (twice as much?) Transmissions (twice as long?)

UNIMARC DefinitionUNIMARC Definition

implementation of ISO 2709 for the structure of records containing bibliographic data

intended to be a carrier format for exchange purposes

does not stipulate form, content, or record structure of data *within* individual systems

UNIMARC ProblemsUNIMARC Problems

Software developers must rewrite their existing software

the existing MARC formats use a unique definition of extended ASCII

How do you convert 40 million MARC records without anyone noticing?

UNIMARC BenefitsUNIMARC Benefits

Allows addition of foreign titles without transliterating the data

Users able to search library catalogs in all languages rather than just by call number or ISBN

Assumes software/virtual keyboards and other input devices needed to generate the CJK characters

Sorting and Conditional Sorting and Conditional FormattingFormatting

English: A-Z, a-z German: Characters with an umlaut sort

directly after characters without an umlaut

Swedish: Ö sorts last in the alphabet after Z

Spanish: double characters (ll and ch) that sort as single characters

Other IssuesOther Issues

Upper and lower case, subtract 32 no more!

Wild card symbols in search/find boxes Hyphenation of long words and word

breaks Gender in language Tense and case

Message CatalogsMessage Catalogs

Files used to store program input and output strings

All program strings used interactively by the user should be contained in one or more message catalogs

Messages stored in database locales Makes messages more customizable

Menu SpaceMenu Space

30-200% extra space depending on the number of English characters

Ex: “Preferences” translates “Bilschirmeinstellungen”

Boxes should be self-sizing and movable

Conventions and Format Conventions and Format DifferencesDifferences

Dates: May 12, 1959 is– 12/5/59 5/12/59 1959-05-12

Calendars: Gregorian, Hebrew, Islamic, Japanese Imperial Era

Times: 8:32 p.m. is– 20:32 20,32,00 20.32 KI 20.32

Conventions and Format Conventions and Format DifferencesDifferences

Numbers: – 3,912.45 3.912,45 3 912,45

Currency: – $2,456.78 2,456,78 DM 2.456$78– Don’t forget yen and pound symbols

Paper sizes: A3, A4, A5, JIS-B4 JIS-B5 Punctuation : << >> ; ¡ ¿

Formats for PatronsFormats for PatronsZ39.69 and Z39.70Z39.69 and Z39.70

NISO standards for patron personal data and patron transaction data

I14N and L10N aspects of patron data need to be considered

Not limited to address, postal code, phone, ID#, and confidentiality issues around the world

Color, Music and SoundColor, Music and Sound

Color combinations Color balance (theme and secondary) Color association (appropriateness based

on abstract concepts) Music and sound more easily linked to a

photograph than an icon Music associations highly dependent on

culture

IconsIcons

Trashcan icon can look like a postal box in Britain

If you use books, make sure they open in the proper direction for the target market

Email icon of a rural post box with a red flag has no meaning outside rural America

IconsIcons

Colors within icons may be culturally insensitive

Try not to use text: think in terms of international driving symbols

Think: what is the symbol for ISBN other than ISBN?