At Booking.com, we support over 40 different languages, and we’ve seen the value in enabling users to read in their own language, and see information presented in a format they are used to. Whether we’re optimising the website for right-to-left languages, or formatting numbers, currencies and dates correctly, we’re constantly working on improving the localization of our website — and that awareness extends to the design process as well.
In this talk, I discussed and shared examples from my experience at Booking.com designing for users in over 200 cultures using the website in over 40 languages.
3. Eight stunning
Booking.com in numbers
- Headquartered in Amsterdam
- 1.4 million room nights per day
- 90 offices around the world
- 15,000 colleagues
- Development from three
continents
10. Localization
Adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural
and other requirements of a specific target market
11. Internalization
The design and development of a product, application or document content that enables
easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.
12. Culture and e-commerce
Culture affects internet usage, e-commerce trust, information and communication
technology adoption, internet marketing and website development
13. Localization...
It goes beyond translating our product in
43 languages
Understanding our users unique cultural
characteristics and business practises is
also key when localizing our product
15. Agile Continuous learning & Testing
Research
User Testing
Hypothesis
A/B Test
Insights
Localization is a process of continuous learning and experimentation to gather insights.
- Get insights from research, market studies and user tests
- Insights inform hypothesis,
- We test every hypothesis We
- learn (succeed) or learn (fail) from these tests
16. Research
- Research for insights locally
- Create market guides and market studies
- Come up with and verify personas
19. A/B testing
- Use insights to come up with hypothesis
- Test these hypotheses
- Learn from the data, and use the data to advice design and development decisions
- We run local experiments and try them globally, we also run global experiments
which at times we re-run for specific markets
20. Copy as a
function of
localization
Perfect UX
in all
languages
Data
informed
design
UI patterns
across
cultures
Diverse
teams
21. LS in local offices
in North America
LS in local offices
in South America
LS in local offices
in Europe
LS in local offices
in Asia Pacific
LS in local offices in
Africa/Middle East
Copy as a function of localisation
- 40+ copywriters
- They work with Language specialists from
our local office
- Support multiple product teams
- Work autonomously
- Drive own strategy
22. Copy as a function of localisation
English : Just booked
10+ other languages: Join millions of travellers around the world
23. Copy as a function of localisation
Bold, Caps, Italics not always a thing
24. Strive for Perfect UX in all languages even if the UI looks imperfect in some
Russian
Perfect UX across all languages
English
25. Russian
Chinese
Perfect UX across all languages
English Pounds Indonesian rupiah
Strive for Perfect UX in all languages even if the UI looks imperfect in some
26. England
UAE
Data informed Design
Data is important in making informed decisions. Culture and people are no longer
geographically separated as everyone is everywhere now a days. target by
language and location
If we can test it, we test it. If we can’t test it then we probably don’t do it - Stuart,
director of design, Booking.com
33. Team of diverse talent & culture
Apart from our diversity giving us strength, It also helps us in localization. We
encourage colleagues to use the website in their native language
34. Team of diverse talent & culture
Internal tools harness the power of cultural diversity
35. Thank you!
@richardomollo
All references to “Booking.com", including any mention of “us”, “we” and “our” refer to Booking.com BV, the company behind Booking.com™
