Internationalization and localization: evaluating and testing a Website for Asian users.
The objective of this study was to combine internationalization and localization of Websites and improvement of Website usability with user-centred design methods. This study designed for internationalization and localization of Websites for Asian users, and implemented usability engineering into every phase of Website usability testing, based on the internationalization and localization perspectives of the honeywell.com/your home Website. The first step was to develop the usage scenarios. Three Asian usability specialists carried out one heuristic evaluation session for the current honeywell.com/your home Website. The usability problems were analysed and possible solutions to these problems were discussed. In the next phase, cluster analysis was utilized to test current information architecture. The results provided options for future information architecture development for this Website. Finally, a performance measurement test was conducted to investigate the performance for Asian users. Based on the results, suggestions for improving the Website usability from the localization perspective were provided. The results demonstrate the user-centred design (UCD) approach and stress international and local issues in Website development to Website designers.
Rau
Pei-Luen Patrick
PL
Department of Management Information Systems, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chunli 320, Taiwan. rau@mis.cycu.edu.tw
Liang
Sheau-Farn Max
SF
D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003626:Data Display; D006804:Ergonomics; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013624:Taiwan; D014584:User-Computer Interface