Re: [tlug] l10n and icons: good example?

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 9:11 PM, Travis Cardwell
<travis.cardwell@example.com> wrote:
> On 2014年03月05日 17:15, Christian Horn wrote:
>> l10n also spans things like icons: but while this seems logical
>> to me I was not able to come up with good examples of localized
>> variants of icons, i.e. to illustrate "save" or the "home" button
>> in a browser.
>> Any good ideas for localized variants of icons?
>
> One thing that comes to mind is the use of ○ (まる, generally means
> "correct") and × (ばつ, generally means "incorrect").  In some cultures, a
> × or check-mark [icon] may be used to indicate completion of a task, while
> a Japanese-localized application might use a ○ [icon] instead.  Using a ×
> [icon] might be confusing, and a check-mark might be acceptable in
> software only because check-marks are common in GUI widgets.


If I remember correctly, if you have a Japanese Playstation 3 (or a
Japanese game for it), then ○ means "OK" and × means "Cancel".
However, if you play an English-language game, × means "OK".  That
threw me off when I wanted to click "OK, OK, OK, ...".

Here in Hong Kong, I once drew a timeline and put an X to mark a
particular point in time.  I was told that in Chinese culture, an X is
actually unlucky.  *I* thought it was ok..."X" marks the spot on
treasure maps, right?

I think one doesn't need to know much about internationalization to
program a piece of software.  While the icons might look a bit
different, the filename, the callback attached to the icon, etc. could
all be in ASCII.

But, localization of software itself could grow into a big topic --
maybe a book in itself.  Like how come American versions of early
Microsoft Word had a paperclip but the Japanese version had a
secretary (by default)?  I guess a paperclip would have would have
worked in Japan...a  secretary in the US version?  Not too sure...
Didn't the Japanese version also have a robot??  I presume Microsoft
USA and Japan each had focus groups to figure out which one would be
more acceptable...

Ray