Mozilla.org - language choice

[Rhoslyn Prys]

I notice that the language choice drop-down on the website is down the
bottom of the web page. It may have been there for years... ;-) Still...

I'd like to suggest that it's moved to the top of the web page, for ease
of use for those not acquainted with English.

To assist in explaining the issue, go to the following pages and change
language to English:

Welsh Assembly Government: http://www.cynulliad.cymru/cy/Pages/Hafan.aspx

S4C TV Broadcaster: http://www.s4c.cymru/cy/amdanom-ni/awdurdod/

Easy, eh? No scrolling, looking for a language button down a long web
page in a language you're not familiar with.

A 'language' icon would be useful too.

Rhos

[Kohei Yoshino]

Hi Rhos,

There was similar utility called Translation Bar before on www.mozilla.org [1]. It has been disabled due to the adoption of the new Tabzilla site navigation, but I'll try to re-implement it sometime soon [2] as we briefly talked about it (actually not about Translation Bar but Update Bar) during the San Francisco All hands. I hope it will solve the most of language mismatching issues.

Cheers,
-Kohei

[1] https://bugzil.la/906943
[2] https://bugzil.la/1195068

[Rhoslyn Prys]

Thanks Kohei, the reason why Welsh language websites have a language
button at the top of the pages is that users are not good at changing
the language preferences within browsers. In our experience most users
lose out on Welsh language content if the website depends on that, so
it's belts and braces - locale recognition within the browser and a big,
clear button/drop-down at the top of the page.

The drop-down would fit nicely next to the 'Download Firefox' button.

Rhos

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[Eduardo Trápani]

> I notice that the language choice drop-down on the website is down the
> bottom of the web page. It may have been there for years... ;-) Still...
>
> I'd like to suggest that it's moved to the top of the web page, for ease
> of use for those not acquainted with English.

Or, maybe, add it also at the top. Not necessarily in the same format.

This discussion might add some information:
https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/29152/language-selection-top-or-bottom-of-the-page

[Rhoslyn Prys]

Thanks Eduardo, I've no problems with having the drop-down at the top
and bottom.

This is what the Welsh Language Commisioner has to say:

http://www.comisiynyddygymraeg.cymru/English/Part%202/6%20Websites%20and%20email/Pages/6-Websites-and-email.aspx


6 Websites and email

This advice document provides a detailed definition (technical and
nontechnical) of what a good bilingual website needs. Essentially, a
good bilingual website will do the following:

* offer a proactive choice of language, from the start of the user’s
visit
* provide a prominent language choice on every page (in the upper
right hand corner of the page); this choice will not use countries’
flags to identify languages
* on each page, the user will be able to switch between Welsh and
English to the corresponding page in the other language, i.e. the
switch will not take the user back to the start of the website in
another language
* when a website links to another site available in Welsh, the
preferred language should follow the user as they move from one site
to another, i.e. Welsh pages on a site should link to Welsh pages on
other sites.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, and your organization’s case for
Welsh language provision and how it deals with the public also need to
be considered.

Rhos

[Kohei Yoshino]

I myself don't think the language button is often used, because www.mozilla.org and the most of Mozilla sites are automatically detecting the most preferred language of the user (browser). What I think important is offering a unified user experience across all Mozilla sites. Here's my research done a few years ago, FYI:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GptrJMQBkGfkuCpqWPiZ07BxsWp41kAZjXXZu07om_A

Unfortunately no cross-site UX initiative has been organized in Mozilla, so there are many obvious issues, not only the language selector but also "sign in" vs "log in", etc. :(

-Kohei

[Jeff Beatty]

Bure Level research has done some good UX research into global gateways.
I'd love to see mozilla.org adopt their recommendations in the future .

Jeff

[Michael Bauer]

Kohei

That only works for those locales lucky enough to have made it into a
browser or OS. Which given there are some 6000 languages, means 99% of
locales are not going to be represented, not even as an accept-language.
For almost everyone in the UK for example their default browser will be
English Chrome or IE running on an English OS. That means that when they
visit mozilla.org, they will not see the Welsh, Gaelic or Irish site
unless they go rooting around at the bottom of the page. Which means nobody.

Unless we come up with something that based on the IP of the user
flashes a welcome message that says "This site is also available in
English UK, Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic" (i can already hear the
howls of complaint about that being an inconvenience to non-speakers of
Welsh etc...), a prominent switcher is the best option.

Michael

Sgrìobh Kohei Yoshino na leanas 10/07/2017 aig 17:26:

[Eduardo Trápani]

> a prominent switcher is the best option.

I think so too. Maybe something like this:

https://thimbleprojects.org/HTTP/bidaian/295565/

By the way, the icon comes from http://www.languageicon.org/ it's CC and
it seems they've done a bit of research.

[Kohei Yoshino]

Mozilla has an API to detect the visitor's country based on their IP address [1], so it's possible to show a message to people from the UK or any other countries having the same issue. We should probably add this feature to the Translation Bar and test it for a while.

-Kohei

[1] https://location.services.mozilla.com/v1/country

On 2017-07-10 12:37 PM, Michael Bauer wrote:
> That only works for those locales lucky enough to have made it into a browser or OS. Which given there are some 6000 languages, means 99% of locales are not going to be represented, not even as an accept-language. For almost everyone in the UK for example their default browser will be English Chrome or IE running on an English OS. That means that when they visit mozilla.org, they will not see the Welsh, Gaelic or Irish site unless they go rooting around at the bottom of the page. Which means nobody.
>

> Unless we come up with something that based on the IP of the user flashes a welcome message that says "This site is also available in English UK, Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic" (i can already hear the howls of complaint about that being an inconvenience to non-speakers of Welsh etc...), a prominent switcher is the best option.

[Eduardo Trápani]

> Easy, eh? No scrolling, looking for a language button down a long web
> page in a language you're not familiar with.

I've just filed: Bug 1379742
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1379742

That's usually the best way to get attention, follow up and contribute.

[Rhoslyn Prys]

Thanks, Eduardo.

Jeff, do you have a link for the Bure Level research you mentioned?

Rhos

[Jeff Beatty]

Here's a link to their blog: http://globalbydesign.com/ Access to anything
else is behind a pay wall.

--
Thanks,
Jeff