Formatting Content for a Global Audience

When formatting web-based and email content for a global or local audience, the following is a checklist of key elements that must be addressed, both in the input and display of these elements throughout your content. This applies to both static content (e.g. a newsletter) as well as product-based content (e.g. user flows). Examples from a variety of countries are shown; the countries in your target market may have their own unique considerations.

Not every one of these elements will be applicable to all content, and there may be additional elements that you must take into consideration in your content, based on your product and business needs. These elements may form the basis of your Style Guide.

ELEMENT

ENTRY FORMAT

DISPLAY FORMAT

Currencies

Set a consistent standard across your product for how currencies should be entered into your product. Will you accept currency symbols such as $, £, or € in the input box? If not, be sure to display the desired currency somewhere next to (in front of or after) the input box, to indicate to customers which currency you expect, for example:

£ OR

To display currencies, you may choose to use the currency symbol (e.g. €5.00), the ISO code (e.g. 5.00 EUR), or a combination of both. Decide the spacing rules (should there be a space between the currency symbol and the amount?). Implement your rules consistently across all currencies that your product supports, including US-$.

Dates and Times

When your customers enter numeric dates and times, always indicate which fields correspond to the month, the day, and the year. Also, where it makes sense, you may want to prepopulate these fields with today's date. This reduces ambiguity about which field is which, for example:


Day	Month	Year

Better yet, use a drop-down list for these items (with proper validation to prevent impossible dates such as February 31):

Where it makes sense, default the options to today's date. In addition, follow the formatting convention used in a particular coutry. For example, US customers typically prefer month-day-year formats, while European customers prefer the day-month-year formats shown in the above examples.

Consistently follow the same convention you select for the input of dates and times.

Names

The first name/last name input format should match the country's standard. If you don't already do so, you may wish to add a salutation drop-down menu in order to capture gender (e.g. for the purposes of gender-appropriate email saltuations in non-English languages). For example:

in German:

Anrede:
Vorname:
Nachname:

in Japanese:

When displaying first names/last names, consistently follow the same convention you select for the input of names. For example:
in German:
Sehr geehrter Herr Franz Müller,

in Japanese:

Note that in Japanese, gender collection is optional for the purposes of email salutations.

Numbers

Number formatting differs from country to country. For example: "1000.25" can be represented as "1,000.25" in the US and "1.000,25" in Europe.

Consistently follow the same convention you select for the input of number. Take care to avoid mixing formats within the product intended for single country.

Phone/Fax Numbers

You must consider several issues when deciding on the input format for phone and fax numbers:

Validating number of digits: Phone and fax number formatting differs widely from country to country. Although US phone/fax numbers adhere rigidly to the (XXX) XXX-XXXX format, many other countries do not have such a standard. Ensure that you provide enough room in your form input fields to accommodate the longest possible phone/fax number in your target country.
Validating the number itself: Unless absolutely necessary, most software avoids the tricky issue of actually validating the number, since it is almost impossible to keep up with the area code and local number changes that occur on an almost daily basis within various in-country phone systems. Lack of validation does allow customers to enter "all zeros" as a phone number, which may or may not be an important consideration for your product.
Entering Preceding Zero in Area Code: Most European area codes start with zero. Carefully state for your customers whether you want them to enter this zero or whether it is understood. When the country code is present, the zero is generally dropped.
Entering Country Code: Avoid asking customers to input a country code, since most do not know it. For example:

for the UK:
Telephone number:
+44
(example: 170 123456)
OR
Telephone number:

(example: 0170 123456)

If you require this input field, you may pre-populate it, for example:
for the UK:
Telephone number:

(example: 44 170 123456)

When displaying phone/fax numbers, ensure that they are displayed as consistently as possible across your software. When displaying phone/fax numbers that have been entered by customers, you may simply display them as the customer entered them, or, depending on the country you may wish to implement some intelligence to format them to conform to the same standard.

Postal Addresses

Follow the standard for your country. For example:

for Germany:

Straße und Hausnummer:
Ergänzende Angaben (optional):
Postleitzahl:	D-
Ort:
Land:	Deutschland

for Australia:

Street Address:

City:
State/Territory:
Postcode:
Country:	Australia

Follow the standard for your country. For example:

for Germany:
Münsingerstraße 14
D-81477 München
DEUTSCHLAND

for Australia:
201 Adelaide Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
AUSTRALIA

URLs and Email Addresses

Indicate whether URLs should be entered with or without the "http://" or "https://".

When localizing a product for another country, consider whether you want to localize any URLs and emails as well. Will you offer your ".com" product in France under http://www.my-product.fr or http://www.my-product.com/fr?