The Invisible Forces behind the Quest for Reaching Global Audiences Jose Coronado & Carrie Livermore Development Services Hyperion Solutions Corporation 4th Annual International Workshop on Internationalisation of Products and Systems July, Austin, Texas, USA

IWIPS 2002 Topics Glossary The Problem Forces behind the Quest Business Legal Ethical Conclusions

IWIPS 2002 Glossary Digital Divide Digitally connected Computers and internet connections at home Globalization Internationalization + Localization Universal Usability Products should be affordable, useful and usable Accessibility Use products (hard and soft) even under limiting conditions

IWIPS 2002 The Problem Globalization and rapid adoption of technology contribute to social and economic divides Companies need to consider global user requirements “Do we translate?” What are the forces that motivate organizations?

IWIPS 2002 Business Forces Huge business and marketing advantages Market and community leadership Reach more users and accommodate more diverse situations Sites at a minimum - need to go beyond translation and address interface design

IWIPS 2002 How strong is the business benefit? From the CUU in November of 2000 Global e-commerce could reach $7 trillion by 2004 IT in education and health industry Cost-effective options to do business

IWIPS 2002 We have Internationalization, What about You? Myths Globalization can be “added” later Internationalization adds time to the development process In-house team is too expensive (relative) Reality Infrastructure must be put in place at the beginning to guarantee success

IWIPS 2002 Business Options in HCI Education Major programs: Carnegie Mellon and Stanford HCI education does not address globalization or internationalization Needs to develop or expand curriculums Infrastructure exists Leading programs could incorporate and complement course offerings

IWIPS 2002 Legal Forces e-business readiness leaders: US, Australia, UK, Canada, Norway and Sweden Legal framework governing IT is a vital factor Regulations and laws could yield more usable and accessible products Accessibility laws in over 20 countries

IWIPS 2002 Liability and Regulations National Federation for the Blind (NFB) vs. American Online (AOL) - USA Individual vs. Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) used DDA France: The Toubon Law

IWIPS 2002 ISO Standards and Cultural Accessibility? Guidance for usability (ISO ) Human-centred design processes for interactive design systems (ISO 13407) No standard addresses cultural accessibility today ISO’s role and power to mandate access Would a standard be enough?

IWIPS 2002 Ethical Forces Professional responsibility - avoid decisions to put user groups in disadvantage Design or build IT that excludes certain Users (i.e. On-line communities) Products exclude users when requirements are not considered World without boundaries like the internet makes requirements more critical

IWIPS 2002 Corporate Responsibility Usability Problems: to fix or not to fix? How are issues weighted? Is it just the right thing to do? The right thing vs. revenue opportunities

IWIPS 2002 Issues with Current Research Classic research studies by Geert Hofstede Developed with only one company (IBM) Socio-economical purposes Intended to make it easier for IBM to sell its products overseas Most of the data was collected in the 80’s Applied in a way Hofstede never intended

IWIPS 2002 Future Research Required Globalization seems to make business sense… Need to validate with practical research Collect data from organizations Methodology: Structured data collection process Include concrete measures ROI, usability, etc.

Questions…