[thelist] Multi-language site structure

[Barney Carroll]

Meshack,

If someone finds the site on a Spanish domain, they click on English, and
> then are directed to a .com, assuming they notice the changed URL, will they
> get suspicious and as a result be less likely to purchase?


I don't believe they would. There's a clear reason for their having moved —
but I would avoid a simple list of language name links, and make that move
explicit in the language-change device, eg: 'Read this page
in <em>Spanish</em> on our Spanish site.' (in Spanish, obviously).

I think this is very important because switching language/country on a site
is an inherently ambiguous thing as to its practical effect, and while we
re-define our intentions here as information architects, it's important to
get that through to the user. Often I will see sites with a little country
flag and the accompanying major language name beside it on the top left, and
I have no idea whether I'm going to the home-page of a significantly
cut-down minisite for that language, an unintelligible programatically
translated version, or an English-language page saying 'for sales/marketing
in France, email us at this address'.

Making the exact function of the 'language change' explicit makes it much
clearer for you to design/develop with a clear aim in mind, and also gives
the user much more confidence in the device.


Regards,
Barney Carroll

barney.carroll at gmail.com
07594 506 381


2009/12/22 Meshack <meshack at hrts.org>

> I thought about this approach... definitely a cooler way to do it, but it's
> a small site and I'm thinking the work involved wouldn't really be worth
> it.
> Although I would have a framework where I could do other such sites. But
> I'll probably wait till I get a real paying job for that.
>
> -Meshack
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
> [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Joel Canfield
> Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 10:33 AM
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: Re: [thelist] Multi-language site structure
>
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 10:30 AM, Meshack <meshack at hrts.org> wrote:
>
> > Any thoughts on this? Does anyone have any other approaches to
> > multi-language sites?
>
>
> what about putting the content for each language in a database and
> populating the same pages with language-specific content?
>
> joel
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