Very helpful. One thing to add: please avoid using flags to represent language. Using the Spanish flag to represent the Spanish language can be confusing or insulting. I know there are dialect differences, but the implications of offending someone with the flag are far greater. Just make a note on the page or in the document regarding the dialect or region.

I’ve been working on multi-lingual websites for the past couple of years, (One of those supporting more then 30 languages) and found very little information on this issue when I started, so this article is a very good starting point.
If I may, I’d like to share a couple more tips, from my experience:
1. Content:
Never assume that content will have the same dimensions in different languages. In fact, the sizes/lengths can vary dramatically. This might create a huge problem when the design involves horizontal elements (like a horizontal menu) or horizontal alignment of elements.
2. Fonts:
When dealing with fonts, encoding to UTF-8 is not enough. Surprisingly (or not) not all commonly-used fonts support characters that are not Latin. It is very important, then, to specify different font-families, and of course to have the option to degrade to the browser’s default font type (serif/sans-serif).
Another issue with fonts is the fact that Non-Latin fonts may not have the same height as their Latin counterparts (or numbers).
3. Right-to-Left (RTL) Interface
It might be good craftsmanship to keep a unified design all over the site, but keep in mind that RTL languages have the same reading conventions as Left to Right languages (just opposite…) and the users of these languages want the website to respect their reading conventions. So the site might need to have it’s design “mirrored” to RTL.
A good way of doing this, it giving RTL different CSS files. Using a web service like “CSS Janus” might help you convert the styles. Still some manual labor will be needed, especially on non-symmetrical graphics.
4. Browsers
Different countries have their own browsing habits. Do not rely only on North American/Western European statistics: Asia and Africa use more of Internet Explorer (and the earlier versions!) then we want to consider. The same goes for Eastern European countries. This combined with slower internet services, means that multi-lingual sites cannot always work with the latest complexities (like CSS3 for example). You might decide to degrade your site’s user experience (gracefully!) for “The challenged”, but make sure that they are not the majority of your users…
Last but not least: Browser Bugs
We found that ALL browsers have bugs when dealing with RTL content. Naturally, IE’s have more bugs (and remember IE6’s market-share in Asia…), but the others have some as well. You WILL work hard to make your website look good on all browsers and in all languages – but the outcome is gratifying.

Good luck.

Great article. and thanx yosh you add some really useful info to the article.

Nice Article – An article on the same topic was posted on Web Designer Online – http://www.webdesigneronline.co.uk/web-design-across-cultures-9-advices

Interesting article, some interesting points. Thanks for sharing!

Good article. Over the years companies and individuals have made a lot of mistakes in marketing because they did not consider different cultures. Even between British and American English there are words that have different meanings which can lead to some unfortunate mistakes.

wow! i never expected that! i’ve been a web designer for almost all my life, and the thing that i always do is keep in mind the market that i’m aiming for, like if it is for the kids or for adults.. but not the cultural thing like you said… and yes, every culture of every country has their own preference, such as the use of colors in our website and, well, the language of course… thx for this very informative article! i’ll be coming back for more if you have more tips on these kinds of things! thx again! ^_^

@Anita and @Colormist – I think liberally-clothed is about right here, though I do see your point. Conservatively-clothed would mean someone who’s not showing a great deal of flesh or who is otherwise uncontroversially clothed, liberal therefore would be the opposite of that – basically free, open and not bound by convention. So that could mean not a lot on, or going by your interpretation it could also mean a generous helping of garments.

Seconding Anita’s comment. Liberally-clothed in this context means “lots of clothing on”. Maybe minimally, skimpily, or partially clothed is a better turn of phrase.

Great post! Your article have really good point! Keep share. thanks.

nice post..
good article…

Really great post, great read! Keep up the good work! :)

Very nice read, thanks. Most of our clients are local, but soon we have a few international potentials, I’ll pass this on to our designers for sure.

good post for web desing

This is so interesting, excellent blog! Paul Alexander Web Design

This article is definitely a good reference for those wanting to create a site for someone who’s from a different culture.:)

really a good reference to create a web

A thoroughly good read, I especially liked the thoughts on design. Too many designers today try to push their own limited design skills and discard the views of their customers who very often have a different perspective or direction that they would like to pursue. Once again – great article.

I loved this post! A cheeky wee comment… I loved seeing Gáidhlig in that picture! A Gaeilge speaker (Irish Gaelic’s Scottish Gaelic’s sister!). Ádh mór oraibh! [=

Ps, orange doesn’t hold religious connotations in northern Ireland, but cultural ones (The Orange Order for example). On the Irish tricolour, green is for Nationalists, orange for Unionists and the white in between for ‘peace’. [=

very good. a good reference to create a web.

This article is definitely a good reference for those wanting to create a site for someone

very clear reference to create a website

Nice… thanks for this article :)

great article…
balance is important thing, thanks for remind…

what a great post..
way to go..
thumbs up..

very nice post

very informative…thanks for this :)

“A liberally-clothed lady on a website isn’t all that offensive to western audiences…” I guess you didn’t have in mind the good-old-ready-to-sue-USA when you wrote that, right?

Really great article. It is really easier to begin right away implement there tips. Our clients seldom haven’t need a website in multiple languages.

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thank you very much your site has provided lots of useful info,,,,

Great post, there are some very valid point made.

It is really easier to begin right away implement there tips.

Hi, where did you get this information can you please support this with some proof or you may say some good reference as I and others will really appreciate. This information is really good and I will say will always be helpful if we try it risk free. So if you can back it up. That will really help us all. And this might bring some good repute to you.

the choice of colors is very important , so I have take advantage of reading such article

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This is the worst cultural help I ever read. Linkbait here.

I teach writing at the college level, and one of the things I discuss with my students is the importance of traditional color associations in their descriptive writing. I bring up the aspect of different cultural associations of color. For instance, the color white in traditional Korean culture is similar to western culture’s associations when it comes to the color a bride’s dress should be, but a white chrysanthemum represents death. This post brings to light an often overlooked issue in web design. Very enlightening.

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Moto CMS. It is one of the first full-fledged systems translated into more than 15 languages, among which are: Russian, Japanese, Turkish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Indonesian and others.
And the list of the available languages is becoming longer and longer

I think in general, this post is insightful and interesting. However, I think it fails to consider a couple of things.

Firstly, different countries prefer different ways to access the Internet. A desktop or laptop certainly isn’t the only way to access the Internet and in some countries, smartphone browsing may be more common.

Secondly, some cultures have different design aesthetics. This is not the same as cultural connotations or associations. You can often seen this in different movie posters for international releases. Similarly, the many different writing scripts can result in unique design choices.

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Moto CMS. It is one of the first full-fledged systems translated into more than 15 languages, among which are: Russian, Japanese, Turkish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Indonesian and others.