4.1.3.1 Icons, Images, and Colors
Description
Non-textual elements, such as icons, need to be optimized for generic universal use. This section also describes
cultural considerations for using images and choosing color schemes.
Command Line Interface
Not applicable.
Character Interface
Not applicable.
Graphical Interface
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) use icons, images, and color in a variety of places, including the toolbar buttons,
the splash screen, progress animations, and the product icon.
Graphics are important because when properly used they can convey a large amount of information very quickly. In some
countries, such as China, pictorial representations are especially common and familiar to people due to their prominence in the
language and culture.
Although the most colorful parts of graphical interfaces are often buttons or icons, color can also be used in more
functional ways in the interface. For instance, color can be applied to text to indicate status. A disk name in green can mean
that the disk is working smoothly, while a disk name in red can represent a disk failure. However, the connotations of red
and green are not the same in every country.
Application Protocols
Some application protocols accommodate language or locale based data. A protocol string might include an element that
contains language information or a locale. For example, in HTTP, a client can send an Accept-Language header, which tells the
server the client's preferred language version of the requested file. The file could be a graphic, which may change according to
the language.
Storage and Interchange
Like messages, images and icons are often stored by locale, separate from code. They are not usually part of another
resource file, rather they are stored individually. Image formats themselves are not locale-sensitive.
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
Not applicable.
Requirements for Compliance
Command Line Interface
No requirement.
Character Interface
No requirement.
Graphical Interface
Graphics should be appropriate for all localized versions of the product. Graphics should not have to be localized
for each version. Successful generic graphics are ones that leverage existing international symbols, such as
those used in airports.
Icons should make use of an icon repository. When icons are reused across various products, users find them easy to recognize.
A graphic designer, preferably someone with experience in creating graphics for products outside the United States,
should review the product's graphical elements.
Graphics should be tested by showing them to users in the target locales. A low-cost way to do this is to email the
proposed icons to salespeople in different locales for feedback.
Tooltips should be used to describe icons, buttons, and other graphics. Tooltips not only help people understand the
images, but they are also required for people with visual impairments who use a text-reader to decipher images. Providers should
store tooltips as localizable resources.
Just as tooltips help users decipher graphical elements, textual alternatives should also be employed when color
conveys information. This approach accommodates users who do not understand the intended significance of a particular color
scheme, as well as users who are colorblind. Providers should store these textual alternatives as localizable
resources.
The following types of images should be avoided:
- Images that contain text - If an image contains English text, it needs to be redesigned for each
locale.
- Images that contain numbers - Numbers can have different connotations in different locales. Just
as the number 13 has an unlucky connotation in the United States, the number 4 connotes death in both Japan and Hong
Kong.
- Images that contain hand gestures - A gesture that is appropriate or meaningful in one locale can
be offensive or meaningless in another locale.
- Images that present a play on words - Puns do not translate well.
- Images of animals - Just as the image of a dog to represent food would be unsettling to most
people in the United States, the image of a cow in the same context can offend people in India.
- Images of people or faces - Depictions of certain facial expressions, nontraditional gender
dynamics, and uncovered skin can be offensive to users in some locales.
Colors should not be referred to by name in the interface, since the words that people from different cultures use to
describe the same color can be different. A color that looks green to a user in the United States could look blue to a Japanese
person, for instance. Also, people in the United States call the middle color of a traffic light "yellow", while people in the UK
call it "amber".
Application Protocols
Providers should supply a protocol that allows for locale specification with a graphic element, where
relevant.
Consumers must give locale information when required in the protocol.
Storage and Interchange
Providers must supply locale-specific storage for graphic elements.
Consumers must store localizable graphic elements by locale.
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
No requirement.
|
|
Print-friendly Version
