Language selection and navigation
2007-08-02 20:58 | 06. Characteristics of Web Texts , 04. Terminology
When publishing several language versions of the same texts on a Web site, a good translation is essential. This is no question, and I simply take it for granted. What is still important to bear in mind, however, is the fact that localisation too often is done “without knowledge of usability engineering principles or the context in which the product will be used” (Del Galdo & Nielsen 1996, p VI). Consequently, another aspect that I will discuss refers to the way the options to choose a language ought to be presented on a Web site.
Three Options of Language Selection
There are basically three options to choose among several language versions of a page.
- language negotiation
(also content negotiation; a function of the HTTP protocol to let a server choose between different language versions automatically, based on the URL and on specific preference information sent by the Web browser) - page selection based on the IP address of the Web browser
(automatic as well) - manual selection by the user
(through language controls or through a language-selection page).
Unfortunately, those technical solutions that automatically pre-select the language of a Web site’s content do not always work as intended. Thus, it is a common way to additionally implement language choice on a starting page, or/and to have language controls on every single page.
Visual Language Symbols Are Problematic
However, with every form of on-site language controls, there is an important mistake that companies – and webmasters in general – could avoid. 
Nielsen (2000, p 325) explains:
“The most frequently used visual symbol for a language is probably a flag, but unfortunately flags represent countries and not languages. The problem […] is that that some languages are spoken in many countries and that some countries have many spoken languages. For example, using an American flag for the English language understandably makes the British upset […] and also irritates Canadians and many others. Of course, using a Canadian flag wouldn’t work because many Canadian speak French and/or English.”
Consequently, setting up automatic mechanisms such as language negotiation or page selection on a Web site always is appropriate, as it supersedes those ambiguous flag symbols. Additionally having language controls on every single page of a Web site gives the user “the option to reconsider the choice of language on subsequent pages” ( Nielsen 2000, p 330) which is advantageous, too. In this case, however, the name of each language should rather be listed as a word, “using each language’s own name for itself” ( Nielsen 2000, p 325), i.e. ‘Deutsch’, ‘English’, or ‘Français’. This will again contribute to respect each visitor’s individual context, as my argumentation during previous postings has emphasised, and it will dramatically increase the Web site’s usability.
We shall see in the next posting that the linguistic problem of having different languages also affects those instances, which seem to be from other fields of Web development, such as the design of Web sites.
This article has been co-edited by Marcel Hartwig M.A.
Published by Christian Kuhn
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