The inherent flaw of the translation icon
There is no internationally accepted definition of what a “translation” icon should look like. But here’s the icon websites tend to use: You see it many places these days — …
Global Design
Krispy Kreme goes to France
Late last year Krispy Kreme entered its 39th foreign market: France. And it launched a localized website to match. The company plans to open 500 stores in France over the …
Mailchimp’s curious global gateway misstep
A little more than a year ago I wrote about Mailchimp’s improved global gateway. Here is what you would have seen in the header back then: And here is the …
How to create a successful global gateway
If someone from outside the US lands on your US-centric .com home page, what is their first impression? And what if they don’t speak English? What visual and textual clues …
The “not applicable” global gateway
When I see NA I generally think “not applicable.” Which was why I gave the Corpay global gateway a second look when I visited recently: Naturally, I clicked on the …
The Delta global gateway and the missing scrollbar
Scrollbars are one of those UI elements that you don’t realize you miss until they’re gone. Of course their prime role is to allow you to scroll up and down. …
Expedia drops flags in its recent redesign
A common refrain in Global by Design are the many risks of using flags as part of your global navigation strategy. As I’ve noted over the years, many companies have …
Peak flag: The decline of flags on websites has begun
I’m pleased to say that, based on the websites I study regularly, we’ve reached “peak flag.” In other words, at a high level, companies are now beginning to move away …
Country codes of the world. XL.
For quite some time people have asked me about creating a larger version of our Country Codes of the World map, something they could pin up in their conference rooms …
A unique look at the emerging multilingual Internet
I’m happy to announce that I’ve updated my map of the world’s internationalized domain names for 2018: The map includes all ICANN-approved country code IDNs for the world — more …
Country Codes of the World in white
I want to thank internet researcher Anat Ben-David for sharing this photo of her office wall. I’ve usually seen our Country Codes of the World print framed in black but I think white …
In search of a better translation icon
A few years ago I wrote about the translation icon and its many variations at that point in time. I thought now would be a good time to revisit this icon. Let’s …