Localisation Versus Globalisation: Making the tradeoff

Getting the business benefits

The International Standard ISO 9241-11 defines usability as the ‘extent to which a system can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use’.

Globally, the ‘specified users’ may be a very large group with different language and cultural requirements.  Locally, the ‘specified users’ become a more clearly defined group based on language and cultural needs.  Successful international products must combine global, general solutions and unique, local solutions if they are to work for users worldwide and among different cultures.  

Who should attend?

This course is designed for anyone who is involved in specifying how a global system or product will look and function.  This could include managers, engineers, designers, developers and analysts from IT, commercial or marketing functions.

What skills and information will they learn?

The objective of this course is for participants:

• To gain a better understanding of the differences between localisation and globalisation
• To appreciate the usability issues associated with both approaches
• To learn the business benefits of each and how to evaluate from a customer’s perspective
• To gain an understanding of the typical risks associated with doing neither
• To learn practical tips on when and how to conduct international usability testing.

Course content

We will use our own experiences to provide real examples in this interactive workshop.  There will be a combination of individual and group activities to practice the theory and tools taught.

• Overview of tutorial
• Introduction to internationalisation, globalisation and localisation
• Activity: from a customer’s perspective
• Stakeholders and their perspectives
• Business benefits and risks
• Activity: evaluating the business benefits  
• How to decide
• Case Study 1: non-textual instructions for a printer
• Case Study 2: an international shipping website
• When to include users
• Tips on usability testing abroad

Course information and how to book

This course is run in-house as a module in our usability training programme.  If you need any further details, please call us on +44 (0)20 7240 3388 or email contact us

What did previous participants think?

Great course, great discussions!

Great communicator.

Well done, thank you very much.

For more information on any of our services, please contact us