Website Pages for International Non-English Speaking Website Visitors
Get in Touch
Get a free web services quote or contact me to discuss your project.
Portfolio
See the sites written, edited and/or optimised by The Contented Website.
Conveying Messages Through Website Icons
Return to the articles' index. Wear the Shoes of your Web Visitors was first published in the New Zealand Tourism Guide's November 2011 newsletter. It was aimed primarily at owners of small and medium-sized tourism businesses in New Zealand.
Wear the Shoes of your Web Visitors
If you own a tourism business that needs to attract the attention of, and more importantly bookings from, overseas clientele as well as from New Zealand's domestic market, then take a moment to stand in the shoes of your potential overseas customer. Take a look at your website through a non-English speaker's eyes. It's likely that one, if not all, of the following may apply to you now:
- It's written in a foreign language – “I don't understand it”
- It assumes local knowledge – “Where exactly is it? How far is it from where I arrive?”
- Your business has an unpronounceable and difficult to spell name – “What was it called again?”
- The cost is in New Zealand dollars – “I can't work out how much this costs.”
Find some suggestions on how to solve these issues of understanding below. The general gist being that when words get lost in translation, make sure that icons, images and widgets do the talking for you.
-
Translations – Use Country Flags
Take a foreign-language speaking visitor directly to a page (if you have one) that's written in their language through a clickable flag icon. Position these in easy to find locations on your home page (e.g. such as the right hand side of the page which naturally attracts the eye). If at all possible, steer away from translation widgets as these can skew meaning significantly and present language that is almost unintelligible.
-
Clear Location – Add a New Zealand Map
Make it easy for visitors to work out where your business is located by using a map (or map outline) of New Zealand with your business location or locations clearly indicated on it. Add the major tourism centres such as Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown to the map of each island. Don't assume that your visitors will 'just know' whether you are in the North or South Island, so use a map that includes both islands.
-
Booking Button – Use Colour Coding
Use a stand-out colour to highlight the booking button on your site e.g. if your website is themed around blue and white, consider adding a contrasting colour such as orange or red to the booking button. This draws the eye and differentiates the booking button from other buttons and menu navigation.
-
Be Easy to Find Again – Bookmark Button
Even if an overseas visitor has a good working knowledge of the English language, they may struggle to remember or spell business names correctly. This can be especially difficult for business names that play on English language meanings (e.g. puns), that are more than 2 words long or in Maori. Adding a 'bookmark this page' button may help these visitors find your website again if they leave it without making a booking.
-
Provide Local Knowledge – Weather Widget
Your overseas visitors may not know that Milford Sound is famous in New Zealand for its rainfall or that Hawke's Bay, the Bay of Plenty and Nelson enjoy the most hours of sunshine annually. So if you want to help your visitors pack the right gear, consider adding a weather widget to your website. Some of these are free online.
Other local knowledge that may help overseas web viewers can include:
- Driving Routes – Depict these as graphically or pictorially as possible, using maps, simple connecting lines and minimal text (e.g. 3 h for 3 hours)
- Local Facilities – Add a small map with icons showing what local facilities and services are near you and how far away they are (e.g. accommodation, supermarket, post office, petrol station, cafe).
-
Working Out Costs - Currency Conversion
Although there are free currency converters available online, try to avoid taking your visitors 'off site' to use them (e.g. don't just provide a link to a 3rd party website). Talk to your web developer about a conversion widget that can be loaded to your site and be realistic about whether you're going to recoup in kind the costs involved.
-
Accommodation Information – Icons Not Words
On accommodation websites, it's not uncommon to see lists of facilities for each establishment and each room type. Thankfully, most of these lists are at least bullet-pointed, but for non-English speakers or readers, these lists may as well be written backwards. Much of this information can be conveyed by icons which at a glance can tell anyone that an accommodation or room offers: parking, valet service, family rooms, swimming pool, Sky TV, kitchenette, hot drink making facilities, minibar, telephone, Internet, ironing board, etc. Look at online photo libraries such as www.istockphoto.com for inexpensive options.
-
Foreign Language Videos – Testimonial Time
Ask visitors from different countries whether you can make a short film featuring them telling their compatriots about your business. These videos can really be worth the time and effort as they are not only engaging and eye-catching, but in the language potential overseas clients can understand. Be sure to include a country flag next to the image of each short film so it's obvious what language each film features and try to ensure that what is said is 100% pure and positive (e.g. pick the right person to film!).
Glossary
If any of these terms sound like a foreign language to you, please don't stew about it. You can refer to the (easy-to-understand) glossary of terms for more information.
Store Them Away
If you want to keep any pages tucked away in your online pantry of goodies, simply bookmark the relevant page in your browser by clicking:
- 'Favourites' (if you're using Internet Explorer/IE)
- 'Bookmarks' (if you're using Firefox).