Business: Localization

Today, the world of digital product design exists at the intersection of East and West, where the interplay between imitation and innovation has shaped the evolving digital landscape. As a UX designer experiencing various cultures, I want to explore how their intersections impact the user interface (UI), the user experience, and product strategy.

In this article, I’ll examine the historical trends of imitation and innovation between the West and Asia, explore how Asian user-driven approaches influence digital products in the West, and share how these insights have influenced my design choices.

However, before delving further into this topic, I must acknowledge that we sometimes overgeneralize in our discussion of cultural differences in UX design. To address this concern, I've gathered specific relevant case studies that provide holistic demonstrations of the points that I intend to explore. Read More

UX personalization is essential to keeping users engaged. Plus, different factors exist that might influence users’ preferences, including their locality.

For a multinational firm that is releasing an app in different regions, if the app’s content lacks an auto-translation feature, this could cripple the user experience that the app offers. You might assume that potential users of the app would understand your preferred language. But for those users who don’t? This is just one scenario that demonstrates the significance of localization in optimizing the user experience.

Multiple challenges relating to the need for localization could prevent your app from engaging your audience and ensuring high satisfaction. You must understand the preferences of diverse audience segments and learn to tailor the user experience accordingly. In this article, I’ll provide guidance on how to adapt app experiences to users worldwide. Read More

This month in Ask UXmatters, our expert panel discusses how best to perform UX research for worldwide products. Creating a successful worldwide product requires understanding both regional differences and local expectations. It’s necessary to translate products’ text into local languages and localize elements such as people’s names, addresses, units of measurement, dates, times, currencies, and other numbers.

When conducting worldwide UX research, you need to learn exactly who would be using the product and for what purposes. Thus, our experts consider taking a Jobs to be Done (JTBD) approach to user research. Our panelists also discuss collaborating with local UX researchers, as well as the importance of conducting usability testing globally. Read More