The Bixal Blog
White House and GSA Crowdsource Ideas to Improve Web Content in Other Languages and More
The National Dialogue to Improve Federal Websites ends this evening, and a number of great ideas have been shared around the important topic of Content in Other Languages. I am honored to have been given the opportunity to serve as a Discussion Catalyst by the White House and GSA, and have enjoyed learning from all of those who participated around this topic and many others.
Being that today is the last day, I wanted to share some of the interesting ideas shared, voted on and discussed.
Making Multilingual Online Presence “Sustainable”
Laura Godfrey of GobiernoUSA.gov made an important point in light of the federal government’s renewed commitment to Executive Order 13166. Laura noted that the government should produce content for Limited English Proficiency (LEP) populations in a sustainable manner; in other words, service to LEP populations should be integrated into the government’s overall customer service strategy so that it can endure. I think that her point is key, because unlike many of the other ideas, which were tactical in nature, Laura's addressed strategy. After all, without a strong strategy, tactics won't take you very far.
Ensure Cultural Relevance
Ensure that content for multilingual and LEP audiences is culturally relevant, not just a word-for-word translation of the content developed for English speakers. This is particularly important for certain types of information (e.g. health-related information) and should be considered early on in the process of understanding audiences and developing websites, not after a website has been fully developed in English.
Translation vs Cultural Adaptation
Felipe Korzenny, author of the recently published Hispanic Marketing: Connecting with the New Latino Consumer, noted that translations often miss the cultural context of communication (i.e. things get lost in translation). A cultural adaptation of the text usually better conveys the intended message. Thus starting the communication from scratch (eg in Spanish) after assimilating the intended meaning is more effective than simply translating the words.
Comments 1 :: Subscribe via Email :: Posted under: Events | Government | Hispanic Marketing | Online Marketing | Social Media | US Hispanic
National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites Starts this Monday
Have ideas regarding how the government can improve Federal websites? If so, please join us in participating in an exciting initiative that starts Monday: The National Dialogue on Improving Federal Websites to share them!
The Dialogue is a nationwide, two-week online conversation with web experts and the public to generate ideas for re-inventing how the federal government delivers information and services online. It's part of the larger .gov Reform Initiative launched earlier this summer by the White House and the U.S. General Services Administration.
The dialogue will launch Monday, Sept. 19 at 2 pm ET and run until Friday, Sept. 30. You'll be able to access it at: http://www.usa.gov/webreform/dialogue.shtml
The purpose is to allow people to submit and vote on ideas for improving various aspects of improving federal websites, such as: content, search, usability, accessibility, social media, multilingual content, and online services. The .gov Task Force will review the ideas and consider them as they develop a National Web Strategy and make recommendations for streamlining federal websites, strengthening federal web policy, and improving citizens' experience with federal websites.
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Reaching Small Coffee Farmers in Peru with the IPad
This morning I attended a very interesting event offered through the TechnologySalon, a series of events organized by Wayan Vota, who is Senior Director at Inveneo.
Wayan invited Corey Pressman of Exprima Media and David Griswold of Sustainable Harvest to do a presentation and Q&A on their collaborative effort to develop IPad applications for small coffee growers in Mexico, Peru and Tanzania.
Comments 0 :: Subscribe via Email :: Posted under: International Development | Latin America | Technologies | IPad
Designing and Testing an Effective Web Presence for the Hispanic Audience
Please join us this coming Friday at the The Washington DC Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association's User Focus 2011 Conference where Carla will be teaming up with Bill Killam of User-Centered Design on Designing (and Testing) an Effective Web Presence for the Hispanic Audience.
Hispanics are the largest minority group in the nation and there are approximately 32 million Hispanics online representing 14.5 percent of the total US online market. A larger percentage of these users are foreign born and are either Spanish-dominant or bilingual. This growth of these segments represents an excellent opportunity for companies, organizations and government agencies who want to reach these audiences more efficiently online. But designing an effective web presence for the Hispanic audience involves more than just translating English into Spanish, especially for groups who are new to the Web. Learn the key considerations for conducting usability analysis with Hispanic users and use the recommendations offered in this session to create more usable websites for the growing Hispanic Community.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Comments 0 :: Subscribe via Email :: Posted under: Events | Government | US Hispanic | Usability