  
| Author: | Cyberclark  | | Posted: | Aug 20, 2014 09:26 | | Subject: | Localization settings | | Viewed: | 239 times | | Topic: | Suggestions | | Status: | Implemented | |
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| Bricklink is a Global marketplace. Awesome. So let's looks like one.
Not sure if it is just the American in me, but logging in to a site and seeing
a little red Chinese flag in the corner of the site with some chinese characters
next to it, just sets off a lot of little alarm bells in my head. It reminds
me of that movie with Sandra Bullock, The Net, where there was a little hidden
symbol on a page and when you clicked on it you were taken to somewhere bad.
If I were a new user and unfamiliar with the site that little icon might make
me think twice about using the site.
Why not do this like most other Global companies do it. Have the main domain
go to a splash page of sorts. A very plain page with a Large Bricklink logo
in the middle and right below it a dropdown box that says choose your location.
Then for now they can have North America and China (the only two localizations
currently available) then as other languages are made available you can easily
add the links for those to the dropdown and users can be directed the the version
that best suits them. Also below that dropdown box have a checkbox that says
Remember this setting on my computer. Checking this box will create a cookie
file so that the next time the user comes to the site they will be auto-directed
to the proper site.
Here are some examples of other companies that use this approach:
http://www.ups.com/
http://www.fedex.com/
Option 2 - You could do what companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google and many
others do and that is route the user based on their IP address. For instance
when I go to http://www.microsoft.com I am seamlessly redirected to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
with no interaction on my part. And then at the bottom left side of the page
they have a picture of a globe, not a US Flag mind you, with the words United
States - English after the globe. If I click on that it takes me to a page when
I can then pick a different localization if for some reason I didn't want
to be on the US site. I know though that this option can be problematic espeically
for people who may be visiting or temporarily living outside of their home country
that they may want to view the site in.
Or Option 3 - If the above 2 take too long to implement. For now just remove
the Chinese flag!! Chinese in this case is a language, you shouldn't need
a national flag to represent that. Isn't the Chinese language used by
more people than just those living in China? Plus, When you click on the link,
to come back it just says Eng? No British or US flag? So why do you feel the
need for the China National flag? Also move the link to the footer of the page,
not the header. Most of the other large sites I am looking at have it in the
footer. And most are just simple text links. Look at Amazon.com for another
example. So internet users are used to having to look for it in the footer,
if they need it. Plus in the upper right there, what happens if you add even
more localizations, are you going to have 30 flags up there in that little tiny
space?
Now I know I gave you 3 options so since they don't give us an option for
a poll in the forum it will be hard to vote on. So how about this, A yes vote
just means that Bricklink needs to look at these options and do something to
change the way localization is currently. A no vote means you are 100% happy
with the way they rolled it out so far 
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Message Has 9 Replies:  Re: Localization settings - akunthita (1077)  | Voted, yes. I saw it this morning and found it really alarming. Not as bad as the missing tabs, but man, I came here to do some shopping and now I can't shop, and I see that [...]
(119 months ago, Aug 20, 2014, to Suggestions) |
| Re: Localization settings - bb138026 (2363) | THIS SITE NOW OF GREAT PEOPLE REPUBLIC OF CHINA FANTASTIC AND TRUE. Sorry couldn't resist. :) We can probably expect that suggestion will be ignored, like all the others.
(119 months ago, Aug 20, 2014, to Suggestions) |
| Re: Localization settings - Miro78 (2360) | [...] Voted yes. It was the first thing that I saw. It's quite annoying to have it stare at your face regardless what page of Bricklink you are on. Just try clicking on [...]
(119 months ago, Aug 20, 2014, to Suggestions) |
10 Messages in this Thread: Msg 1 « - Cyberclark (838) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
 Msg 2 - MYLEGOBRICKS (3020) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
Msg 3 - akunthita (1077) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
Msg 4 - lovaquero (2128) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
Msg 5 - bb138026 (2363) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
Msg 6 - Miro78 (2360) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
Msg 7 - Jazzabell (900) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
Msg 8 - speshy (1677) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
Msg 9 - BLUSER_36530 (810) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
 Msg 10 - pollie1213 (3645) 119 months ago Aug 20, 2014 to Suggestions
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USA, Florida
