7 Secrets of a Successful International Website, West Texas Style
Category: Just Plain Silly...
Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2007 at 11:34 AM [GMT-6]

An article in the current edition of Digital Web Magazine provides tips for designing websites that will cater to an international market. It's in the Details: Seven Secrets of a Successful International Website gives some specific guidelines to increase the likelihood that your website will be understood by and pleasing to visitors from other countries and cultures.

That's all well and good, but it's just as important to understand your local or regional market. In the public interest, I offer the following adaptation of the article's main points to ensure that websites get the job done in west Texas.

1. Shopping habits differ by culture. In some cultures, the shopping cart icon that indicates a "basket" of goods or services to be purchased online doesn't work, because they don't use those carts. Same thing in west Texas: always use a pickup truck icon, preferably a dually.


2. Analogies can alienate. Be sure to localize your descriptions of your products. Instead of comparing the size of Disney World to Rhode Island, the dinkiest of all the states, compare it to Brewster County, which is four times the size of RI.


3. Colors have cultural significance. According to the article, white signifies death in Asia, which must pose a marketing challenge for toilet paper manufacturers. But, anyway, same thing goes here in west Texas. Don't use burnt orange or you'll alienate all the Aggies...or at least those who know how to use a computer. Well, on second thought, go ahead and use burnt orange. The potential market ain't all that big.*


4. Symbols are not all universal. This one's pretty obvious. Every hand gesture you can think of will offend some college sports fan, so the best thing to do is just slap a Texas flag alongside your product and you'll be good to go.


5. Weights and measures should be appropriate. The article discusses the pros and cons of using metric measurements vs. good old American ones, which ain't even up for debate. But you should take it a step further, and incorporate widely understood terms like "a good day's ride," "just a tad more," "a right smart pace," and so on.


6. Text swell can ruin your website design. OK, this one's a little harder to get a handle on. But you know how when you watch those kung fu movies and the guy's mouth goes on forever and then the actual American translation is something like "Oh no!"? Well, that's sort of an example of text swell. Different languages takes up different amounts of space when you write 'em down. But don't worry about it; just stick to good old American and you'll be fine. Or Spanish, even though it takes up a tad bit more space on account of all those extra o's and a's tacked onto the end of real words. On the other hand, the Spanish word for "and" is "y" (but it's pronounced "e" -- go figure) and so you'll be able to take up some slack there.


7. Be sensitive. I have no idea what this one means. Ya'll can just ignore that one.

I hope this primer has proven useful to ya'll. Up next: Building websites for little yankee wusses.**

*I can say this, as I are one.

**Extra credit for those who can identify the source of this reference.