localization - it's big in japan 20070408

Localization. It’s Big in Japan.

Agenda

• Why Localization?• GILT: Globalization, I18n, L10n, Translation• Localization from a User-centered Design Point of View• Project Overview & Research Approach• Cultural Research• Japanese• Our Research Approach• The Research Sessions• Results• Logistics• Localization Tips• References• Q & A

Why Localization? – Even translation is difficult…

• Kentucky Fried Chicken’s tagline“Finger lickin’ good” was mistranslated as “Eat your fingers off” in Chinese

• General Motors ran into trouble trying to sell the Chevy Nova in Latin America.“No va” means “no go” in Spanish.

• The Budweiser slogan “King of Beers” was translated into Spanish as “Queen of Beers.”

• Ford tried to sell the Pinto in Brazil. Pinto is apparently slang for “tiny male genitals.”

• Procter & Gamble marketed its Cheer laundry detergent in Japan under the familiar “all-temperature” slogan, yet the Japanese wash clothes in cold water, almost exclusively.

• An American firm in India used a symbol of an owl in its marketing efforts only to find out that in India, an owl signifies bad luck.

Photo: Jon Ashley 2006 with Treo 700p in Kyoto Japan

Why Localization?

• Simple translation is not enough (Whose Spanish? Mexican Spanish, Central American Spanish, Spanish in Spain?).What about idioms? “Break a leg!” “Let’s get down and dirty…”

• Localization is tied to locale. Not just the language, but the geography and – more important – the culture.

• Size of the non-English-speaking audience

http://global-reach.biz/

GILT: Globalization, I18n, L10n, Translation

The words “internationalization,” “localization” and “globalization” are often used interchangeably.However, they actually mean very different things, both for business and in an interactive-specific context:

• Globalization: Not simply having a world-wide presence, but rather the incorporation of a global perspective into all aspects of a company (&/or communications, systems, etc.).

• Internationalization (I18n): Creating culturally neutral content, materials, and products (as a first step in a localization process).– No idioms, no metaphors; character encoding, currency and

address mechanisms, etc.• Localization (L10n): The process of adapting, designing or

manufacturing a product so that it has the look and feel of a locally-manufactured piece of goods.– Requires an understanding of local users and local culture– Content, linguistic and technical issues must be covered

• Translation: Changing text from one natural language into another.

http://www.lisa.org/ and others, see reference page

GILT: Globalization, I18n, L10n, Translation - Visualized

http://www.lisa.org/

Translation & Layout

http://bytelevel.com/

Translation Vendors

• across• Advanced International Translations• Beetext• Idiom• Lido-Lang• Lingotek• Lionbridge (from the fact that “L10n” looks like “Lion”)• The Language Technology Centre• Plunet• ]project-open[• Sajan• SDL• thebigword• Translations.com• Transware

Brand can work across cultures & languages

http://www.apple.co.jp/

Usability and affordance can transcend language as well

http://www.sej.co.jp/

Localization from a User-centered Design Point of View

Localization from a User-centered Design Point of View

• Good body of research exists on cultural research• Books:

– Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies– Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind

(Geert Hofstede)• ACM papers and journal articles (Use the ACM Digital

Library)• Aaron Marcus and Associates articles (amanda.com)

• Information about other cultures is broadly available(books, papers, current periodicals, online resources, etc.)– Beware of older resources… cultures change!

Cultural Dimensions (Geert Hofstede – Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind)

•Power DistancePower distance refers to the extent to which less powerful members expect and accept unequal power distribution within a culture.

•Individualism vs. CollectivismIndividualism in cultures implies loose ties; everyone is expected to look after one’s self or immediate family but no one else. Collectivism implies that people are integrated from birth into strong, cohesive groups that protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

•Masculinity vs. FemininityMasculinity and femininity refer to gender roles, not physical characteristics. The more "masculine" the culture, the more the two genders are differentiated.

•Uncertainty AvoidancePeople vary in the extent that they feel anxiety about uncertain or unknown matters, as opposed to the more universal feeling of fear caused by known or understood threats. Cultures vary in their avoidance of uncertainty, creating different rituals and having different values regarding formality, punctuality, legal-religious-social requirements, and tolerance for ambiguity.

•Long- vs. Short-Term Time OrientationIn the early 1980s, shortly after Hofstede first formulated his cultural dimensions, work by Michael Bond convinced him that a fifth dimension needed to be defined. Long-Term Orientation seemed to play an important role in Asian countries that had been influenced by Confucian philosophy over many thousands of years. Hofstede and Bond found such countries shared these beliefs:

– A stable society requires unequal relations.– The family is the prototype of all social organizations; consequently, older people (parents) have more

authority than younger people (and men more than women).– Virtuous behavior to others means not treating them as one would not like to be treated.– Virtuous behavior in work means trying to acquire skills and education, working hard, and being frugal,

patient, and persevering.

Cultural Dimensions and Global Web Design: What? So What? Now What? – Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.

Cultural Dimensions – Japan, USA, Others

© 2006 Refinery Inc.

UI Aspects Affected by Localization

User interfaces (whether for the Web or for other technologies) can be thought of as having these components:

• Metaphors: Fundamental concepts communicated via words, images, sounds, and tactile experiences. The pace of metaphor invention and neologism will increase because of rapid development, deployment, and distribution through the Web.

• Mental models: Structures or organizations of data, functions, tasks, roles, and people in groups at work or play. Content, function, media, tool, role, and task hierarchies are examples.

• Navigation: Movement through the mental models, i.e., through content and tools. Examples include dialogue techniques such as menus, dialogue boxes, control panels, icons, tool palettes, and windows.

• Interaction: Input/output techniques, including feedback. Examples include the choices of keyboards, mice, pens, or microphones for input and the use of drag-and-drop selection/action sequences.

• Appearance: Visual, auditory, and tactile characteristics. Examples include choices of colors, fonts, verbal style (e.g., verbose/terse or informal/formal), sound cues, and vibration modes.

Cross-Cultural User-Interface Design Smith, Michael J., and Salvendy, Gavriel, Eds., Proceedings, Vol. 2, Human-Computer Interface Internat. (HCII) Conf., 5-10 Aug., 2001, New Orleans, LA, USA, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ USA, pp. 502-505.

Project Overview & Research Approach

Project Brief

• Fall/Winter of 2006• Intranet HR site (“CareerQuest”) created 2 years prior as

part of an organizational shift• Acquired Japanese subsidiary of major pharmaceutical

company• Client accepted our recommendation – that “localization”

rather than simple “translation” was necessary for success (adoption an internal process)

Research Approach

• Several weeks of prep– Localization bootstrap– Japanese culture– Web site content (existing site and potential Japanese

content)• Straight translation of site for prototype

– We created a locally-running prototype in English from the dynamic server-driven site

– Translation partner delivered translated site back to us in just a few days

• Test Plan: Recruiting, Test Script– Title and Tenure of each participant (all vCards)– Questions, Labeling Activities & Prototype Tasks

Team Composition

• Account Strategist (generally not involved in user research sessions)

• Content Strategist (key to sessions and project overall)

• Creative Director (aesthetic research)• User Experience Architect (session facilitator)• Project Manager (logistics coordinator)

• Interpreter (truly an extension of the project team)

Cultural Research

• Books– Meet the Japanese– How to Do Business with the Japanese

• Online Resources• Cultural norms to observe

– Japanese-style, dual-language/double-sided business cards

– “Meishi” ritual/practice (business card ceremony)

– Bowing (& only light hand shaking)– Slip-on shoes (on and off for

restaurants, etc.)– Charcoal gray suit, “typical” is less

distracting– Body language and hand gesture (too

American is not good)• Corporation-specific culture

Cultural Research

http://www.how-to-bow.com/

Language Tools – Rikaichan (Firefox Plug-in)

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2471

Language Tools – Google Translate (and others)

A very short Japanese lesson

• Kanji – literally means “Chinese characters”

• Hiragana – the syllabary that evolved from Kanji around the 6th century

• Katakana – more angular syllabary developed from Kanji

• Romaji – the Roman or Western alphabet

Japanese has 3 main writing systems: Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana.Roman letters (a, b, c ...), Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2 ...) and various punctuation marks (。 , !, ?, 「 , 」 ...) are also commonly found in Japanese writing.

www.aqworks.com/articles/

A very short Japanese lesson

All of these different writing systems can be found in the same sentence. For example:

– UNIX での日本語文字コードを扱うために使用されている従来の EUC は次のようなものでした。

– “The traditional EUC encoding used to handle Japanese character codes on Unix looked like this.”

Japanese Typography

• Right to left flow is very common (many books & magazines)

• Left-to-right text is common now (especially on the Web)• Vertical text is still seen, but it has an “older” feel• Like Latin-based text, “serif” type feels older than “san-

serif” type• Kerning is an issue, as the ideograms are monospaced

www.aqworks.com/articles/

Japanese Typography

• Typefaces convey tone and style, just as in English

• The density of many Kanji characters necessitates certain stylistic choices

• Bold can make busy/dense characters hard to read – and have a feeling of “ads” trying to sell something anyway

“Yes, you can say that.”

“Which is to be master?”

• Career • Skill • Promotion • Competency • Job Families • Resources • Tools • Career Ladder• Dialog • Employee Development Process • Time in Grade

Research Sessions

Session Approach

• 1 ½ hour sessions with 30 minute breaks• Participant “homework”• Using an Interpreter

– Each session - even if the participants believe their English is ‘good enough’ (it’s probably not;)

– Advance meeting to discuss purpose & script (2 hours)– Personnel consistency (same interpreter, as possible)– A few sentences at a time– Physical arrangement (diagram)

• Listening for key words and phrases• Morae recorded

Session Outline

• Meishi Exchange – inconsistently observed• Introduction – Background/Relationship

(long view cultural dimension)• Corporate Cultural Change Discussion• Labeling Exercise (day-2 change in layout)• Design Aesthetics

– Responses to “homework”– Reference websites reviewed– Stock photography review/critiqued for authenticity– Color exploration (informed by existing ‘global norm’

research)• Usability Testing with Functional Prototype

– Key Tasks– Any inherited design decisions that cause issues?

• Listening for use of key phrases to aid in localizing concepts

Session Logistics

Morae can be run across anad-hoc network

• Set up a manual IP address• Point Morae components at

the correct (numeric) IP

• Materials printable on metric sizes (A4, etc.)


Labeling Exercise


Results

Katakana Words

• Career キャリア• Skill スキル• Competency コンピテンシー• Career Ladder キャリア・ラダー

What about the title of the site?

• CareerQuest• 職務探索• きゃりあくえすと• キャリアクエスト

Kanji Terms

• Promotion (Process) 昇進・昇格（プロセス）

• Dialog 面談• Employee Development

Process (EDP) 社員能力開発プロセス• Time in Grade 年功（制度）

Problem Terms

• Resources • Tools • Job Families

Cultural Issues

• In Group/Out Group • Top-Down Approval • Prior Approval (nemawashi) • Non-Confrontation• Lower level of skepticism

Logistics

Logistics

• Traveling in a foreign country– Maps, Travel– Currency (and cash or credit biases)– Power supplies (plane & in-country standards)– US Embassy location– American Chamber of Commerce location– Medical facility locations, language proficiency and coverage– Language/phrase assistance

• Treo 700p plug– Maps (subway, city, etc.)– Travel guides (local information, restaurants, site seeing)– Photos (building guides to look for)– Language program (not quite a Babelfish in your ear, but…)– Camera/Camcorder

Logistics – a Smart Phone Plug

Localization Tips

Localization Tips

• Research can work through an interpreter– Meet prior to first research session to discuss goals,

approach; agree on key terms, etc.– If possible, have the same interpreter for all sessions– Allow for extra time to compensate

• You will need supporting team members (On site & back at home)

• Don’t let logistics overwhelm you– Compensate for jet-lag (in-country lead time)– Fully-prep for timing, location, etc.– Client extranet, etc. is invaluable– Plan for regional differences (A4 paper size, electricity, etc.)

• Be prepared to evolve the research and session materials throughout the course of the research

• You will have to watch your translation partner carefully, double- and triple-checking work against the “translation dictionary”

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