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Flags Are Not Languages
Key lessons learned (the TL;DR version): - users are easily able to find translation links in footers - language names work well at communicating links to translations – but only if the user is familiar with that alphabet (for instance, as English-speaking user won’t recognize Chinese lettering if Chinese is the current language) - the use of flags do not aid users more than listing language names and using other iconography for selectors - be careful when using online remote testing. Careless participants can skew your outcomes onefinestay is a holiday/vacation rental service with a difference: it aims to give you the chance to stay in someone’s place while they’re out of town and “live their life”.
Working with their Product Manager Matt Isherwood(a former colleague of mine), we started to discuss what the best way to present multiple languages on the site would be. Test users would then see a full-screen mock up of a onefinestay page translated into French in which hopefully they would be able to find a way to navigate to the English-language version of the site. What if onefinestay adds a Chinese option to their menu and we change the task slightly: you’re in Shanghai trying to find a place to stay.
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