Web Design Across Cultures
Posted by Dave Wiltshire on June, 1st 2010
Website localisation is the way of the future – 78% of all internet users aren’t native English speakers and that number is increasing all the time. This changing of the guard means it’s becoming increasingly necessary for websites to think beyond a purely English-speaking audience when it comes to their online presence.
In fact, the bar is constantly being raised – not long ago a website with ten different language options was considered to be a global website, today you need more than 20 different localised sites to be considered truly ‘global’.
Even if you have no intention of developing localised, fully translated domains for a broad range of target countries, the increasing sophistication of automated online translation tools like Google Translate means that, even if you’re only planning to use English on your site, it’s now reasonably understandable and accessible for speakers of [...]