AQ

Bilingual Website Design and Localization

In Japan, you can accomplish a few things without Japanese, but so much more with. Adding Japanese to your website establishes trust and tells your audience that you care enough to make it easy for them to join the conversation.

Japanese websites look different because Japanese people use the web differently. They have different concerns and interests, different expectations about how a site should look, read and work. AQ makes your site work for Japan by going beyond mechanical translation to address cultural differences at all stages of development.

Strategy

We study your business, content and services and determine what content and features will work best in each language, including the basics expected of any reputable Japanese website.

If you're a community website, we help you determine the best way to integrate Japanese content, interface, users and metadata into the wider community.

Design and Interface

We design a website that both English and Japanese-speaking audience will enjoy using.

We find feature names, titles, descriptions and labels that sound natural in Japanese and English.

Technology

We make sure that users find content in their language with as few steps as possible, or redirect them to the right place when content isn't available in their language.

We can create a content management system so you can painlessly add and translate new content to your own site.

Consulting

Our consulting packages are a great way to quickly evaluate a website at any stage of completion. Our reports point you in the right direction with the specifics to start improving your website quickly.

What we do:

After learning about your business and customers, we dive deep into your site, looking at:

• What your competitors are doing
• Overall site organization and navigation
• Usability of features
• Appropriateness of visual design
• Clarity and tone of copywriting and labeling
• How your code and copy perform in search engines
• Cultural considerations for Japanese audiences

What you get:

A new perspective. We tell you what’s wrong and how to fix it. Our presentation and PDF report include:

• Diagrams showing exactly how to restructure each page for better usability.
• Design composites showing you how each key page should look.
• Quick fixes you can make this month to improve your site.
• Big picture issues that you should address this year, and advice on how to get started.
• Follow up support and advice once you’ve started redesigning.

Usability Testing

Usability testing shows you how real live humans use your site everyday. Watch them explore your site click by click, try out features, interpret your writing, linger on the interesting stuff, and stumble when something doesn’t make sense. Testing helps you identify real problems (and can be painful to watch sometimes), but points you towards a website that works better.

How does it work?

1. We meet you to learn about your business, customers and website.
2. We recruit 8-10 people just like the ones who would use your site.
3. We meet them and watch them use your website. We may have them complete some tasks, let them roam free, or a little of both.
4. We take lots of notes, and videotape the session for further study.
5. We meet you again, present the results and offer you solutions.

What do you learn?

• Hard, raw numbers about how people use your site.
  e.g. 8 out of 10 skipped over your mission statement
• What’s wrong with your site (small things you should improve right away)
  e.g. 6 out of 10 couldn’t find the Buy Now button.
• What’s really wrong with your site (big things you can improve in the future)
  e.g. Your checkout process is too complex, 8 users out of 10 lost their patience and went elsewhere.
• What’s right with your site.
  e.g. 8 out of 10 users praised the human voice of the site, and felt like they really know you.

Why test with AQ?

• We’ve been in Japan a while, studying how Japanese people use the web.
• We speak the language, and your language.
• Usability testing is all about observation, and we’re good listeners.
• We cut to the chase. Our presentations are thorough, but concise so you can get moving quickly.

Additional services

• English and Japanese print-collateral design
• Custom imagemaking and typographic identity systems
• Design maintenance documentation and training