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Title:
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Localization and Internationalization of Driver Information Systems
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Author:
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Cristina Olaverri
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
, Phonetics; Computational linguistics, Computer Science
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Degree Date:
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2006
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Computational Linguistics
Translation
Writing Systems
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Subject Language(s):
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English
French
German, Standard
Japanese
Spanish
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Director(s):
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Hans Tillmann
Christoph Draxler
Dr. Klaus Bengler
Klaus Schulz
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Abstract:
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The introduction of a product into a particular market can be facilitated by taking modifications into account during the development phase by which a later adaptation to the specific market, the Localization, is relatively easy to achieve. This kind of product development is called “Internationalization”.
The existence of cultural differences when using the user interface in the Driver Information Systems (DIS) was investigated. The collected data founded the base for the prototyped implementation of a system that had an internationalized menu structure.
In an online questionnaire, BMW employees in Germany, USA and Japan were asked to evaluate 47 functions of a driver information system referring to five parameters: “importance”, “visualisation”, “frequency”, “immediate activation” and “additional button”. 32% of all functions were evaluated as significantly different with regard to the three parameters “importance”, “visualisation” and “frequency” in at least two of the countries and 47% with regard to three of the five parameters that were asked.
Results showed that the highest number of differences was detected in the field “Communication”, followed by “Entertainment”. Thereby there were stronger distinctions between Japan and USA than between Japan and Germany. Answers of interviewed persons from Germany and USA were the most similar.
Specific menu structures for the countries Germany, USA and Japan were derived from the collected data using the module “Entertainment” as an example. Based on these specific menu structures, a new general menu structure was created. This latter structure was then formalized and transformed in the structures specific for each country using transformations.
This was conducted utilizing the program languages Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the structured data representation, Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) and XML Path Language (Xpath) for the transformation of a document and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG language that is based on XML) for the creation of vector graphics and animations. The implemented system allows transformation of a basic structure into a specific country version assuring the independence of text and symbols from the structure. This makes a later translation easier and allows the modification of the structure with external scripts so that changes during the process of localization are very easy to implement without modification of the source code.
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