This year the User Experience Alliance (UXalliance), a global network of leading user research firms, celebrated World Usability Day by unveiling the preliminary findings of the first “Global-Local Monitor” conducted on airline Web sites

The Global-Local Monitor assesses how well a site is localized or adapted to local language and culture. Localization is based on factors such as the proper use of local languages, character sets, weights and measures, currencies, dates and times, and culturally sensitive imagery. In this case, how well an airline’s Web site is localized could measurably impact their customer’s ability to complete travel bookings or find important information. Ultimately it impacts brand perception and sales.

The Global-Local Monitor for airlines drew upon the talents and expertise of over 70 user experience professionals from 17 countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas; this is the broadest systematic localization review ever conducted by user experience professionals. The Global-Local airline monitor involved five local user experience experts in each country, each reviewing the ten Web sites on 30 localization criteria.

The ten Web sites surveyed were those shortlisted for the Skytrax Airline of the Year Award, which annually rates airline performance by more than 16 million air travelers

More about the study on UXalliance website.