A World Usability Day

CASE STUDY
Conducting Multinational Expert Reviews
BY SIMON HERD, MAURA VIJ, AND TJEERD DE BOER

A
s products and services become increasingly global, brands must reflect cultural differences
across many diverse markets. Companies need to be consistent in their Web offerings across
countries to address economies of scale and reinforce brand identity. However, to be success-
ful, they must address local needs as well. Therefore, global companies need international
user research to extend past a single perspective and ensure that the design reflects the needs of the cul-
tures where a product will be used.
There are several methods for conducting international user research: ¥ An international communications provider This Germany-
¥ Using local teams for each country based company was interested in receiving international user input
¥ Identifying one team for multinational testing on its mobile applications.
¥ Using remote observation The UXA members and affiliates that conducted the reviews included:
¥ Performing remote testing ¥ Australia: The Hiser Group
How do you choose between these methods? On one hand, it is ¥ Brazil: Mercedes Sanchez Usabilidade
important to engage local expertise in each target country because partici- ¥ China: User Experience
pants respond better when the interviewer is from the same culture. In ¥ France: Axance
addition, direct local involvement in translation and localization, session ¥ Germany: SirValUse Consulting GmbH
planning and administration, and outcome analysis is necessary for good ¥ Netherlands: User Intelligence
results. Nevertheless, you must ensure that the testing procedures and final ¥ Russia: UIDesign
deliverables are consistent across locales. Otherwise, it might be difficult to ¥ Spain: Xperience Consulting
compare results between countries—you will not be able to tell whether ¥ Sweden: Usability Partners
differences are due to methodology or to genuine cultural differences. ¥ UK: Serco Usability Services
The ideal method for global user research would be to use local ¥ U.S.: User Centric, Inc.
teams for each country, while ensuring the overall integrity of the process.
One way to do this is to hire a user research team with global testing Planning
capabilities. To illustrate this approach, on World Usability Day 2006, In many ways, the international heuristic reviews were like any
the User Experience Alliance (UXA) and associated companies performed other evaluation; however, a lot of planning is required to coordinate
a series of heuristic reviews around the world. This article discusses the a review of eleven different teams in as many time zones.
process and benefits of this type of review and how global usability serv- A consistent approach was essential, so weekly phone meetings
ices can both deliver real business benefits and make a significant impact involving all reviewing organizations were held well in advance of
for local users. World Usability Day. As a result, teams were able to review and final-
ize briefing documents and common reporting templates early. The
Setting up the Global Review lead company (or the client sponsor for each product or application)
The UXA approached organizations with international profiles in each locale then modified these templates to include background
across different business sectors to help plan the event. information on the target users and typical tasks, as well as on the
Organizations that agreed to participate included the following: service or website to be tested. These documents and other necessary
¥ Ikea A furniture retailer with a clear Swedish identity but an inter- items (such as mobile handsets in the case of the German telecommu-
national presence—thirty-five sites in Europe, North America, Asia, nication company) were then distributed to the reviewing countries.
and the Middle East.
¥ Tourism BC The tourist authority of the Canadian province of Execution and Reporting
British Columbia, which seeks to encourage visitors to come to BC As World Usability Day began, UXA’s Australian partner started the
through a range of websites targeted at specific countries. review process. As the day progressed, each company completed its reviews
¥ A major international banking and financial services compa- and reporting templates and then fed the results to the lead company who
ny This company has a presence in over seventy countries and territories worked directly with the client. Final reports were also sent to a designated
in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. “record keeper” so that all results could be reviewed together later.

18 User Experience Volume 6, Issue 1, 2007 www.usabilityprofessionals.org

Findings of the Expert Review
A website can work well internationally whether the organiza-
tion is globally focused, such as Ikea, or has a clear local identity.
However, any site can suffer from issues that hinder easy use. In
reviewing the findings from our twenty-two completed expert
reviews, certain trends emerged, some of which were not surprising
to UXA members. Typically, some issues remained constant across
countries, but in areas such as language, symbols, and imagery,
the reviewers found unique results related to locales. Each is
described below.
Translation
Following are two examples of how inaccurate translations can
create issues for users.
In our reviews, we found that translations were generally profes-
sional, but one review uncovered a higher level issue that indicated
that the site was not locally focused. The wrong character, a direct
translation of the English word “Go,” was used as the label for the
Text lengths can vary significantly, which needs to be considered in website
templates.
A tone that works well for North America may not work as well elsewhere.
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button used to execute a search. This is inappropriate for Chinese
users, as “Go” is rarely used in Chinese search engines.
Text may be translated correctly but not fit well within a site
structure designed for the original language if the text length
increases. For example, this translation of “New!” from English into
Russian is too big for the area available and, condensed, becomes
difficult to read.
Cultural Issues
Context that is understood in one locale may be misunderstood in oth-
ers. For example, while “BC” (for the province of British Columbia) is
familiar to users in Canada, it is much less familiar in other countries.
Culture can also impact the appropriateness of writing style.
While a friendly and informal tone may be appropriate for a holi-
day site targeted to North American users, Germans prefer a more
formal style. We also noted this issue with another of the sites
reviewed—the German users were addressed informally (“Du”)
throughout the site. This is not typical for German websites.
Care is also required when localizing details such as dates
and phone numbers, as these can become a barrier to users in
other countries. For example, overseas users looking at a site
aimed at North America and seeing the phone number “Call 1-
800 HELLO BC” may become confused. In North America, the use
Volume 6, Issue 1, 2007 User Experience 19

Foreign users may not understand localized abbreviations
of letters within telephone numbers is common practice, yet else-
where it can be an alien concept.
Imagery
Images are important because, from them, users can quickly pick
up cues as to the cultural appropriateness of a site. We frequently
heard users say, “The people on the site don’t look very
“<insert appropriate nationality here>.”
“People on this site don’t look very <insert your nationality here>” is a
common response.
Note that a concentration of one
type of people isn’t necessarily a bad
thing—it all depends on context. For
example, a travel website for Asia
should have Asian people on it.
Visual style can also give users a
20 User Experience Volume 6, Issue 1, 2007
feel for whether the site is aimed at them. For example, one home
page that was tested in a range of countries was found to be
appropriate in all of them except Brazil. Brazilian users perceived
their version of the site as being “sad” because it was not colorful
enough for them. This left them with the impression that the site was
not targeted to or localized for them.
And it’s not just people. For example, a route-description icon
based on local conventions at the home office can look foreign and
alien in other locations.
Symbols
In addition to reinforcing that the site is not
local, the wrong symbols can actively prevent
users from completing tasks. For example, we
noted several instances where currency symbols In France, the currency
were not displayed properly. symbol should be dis-
Conventions as to how certain types of played after the
information such as dates, times, telephone number.
numbers, and currency symbols should be
displayed also vary from country to country. Not following these
can give a clear cue that the site has not been fully localized. The
example above was seen in France, where the convention is to
display the currency symbol after the number, not before.
Conclusion
The trend of conducting global user research is growing rapidly.
For international organizations, the need to receive feedback from
users at the local level is not just important, but essential to product
success. It is the responsibility of usability professionals to conduct
global testing and demonstrate the impact that investing in the user
experience can have. It is also our responsibility to continue to
refine the process, methods, and results to produce the highest
quality of results in these often complex efforts. By organizing a
multinational event and sharing some of the results, we hope to
have demonstrated why forging a partnership with your users
worldwide can provide the best path to achieving your company’s
business goals. UX
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Simon Herd is a managing consultant at Serco Usability
Services in London. Simon has sixteen years of usability
experience working on internal usability teams and as a
consultant. He specializes in international usability projects,
having worked on projects involving five continents.
Maura Vij is a marketing specialist for Chicago-based User
Centric, Inc. She has seven years of experience in the field of
usability and frequently collaborates on books, articles, and
conference submissions within the field.
Tjeerd de Boer is the founder of User Intelligence, a user-
experience design and evaluation firm in Amsterdam that he
started five years ago. Combined with his previous work at
Razorfish, Tjeerd has seven years of experience helping
A British road sign doesn’t
organizations realize the importance of usability.
look right to users in the
Netherlands.
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