Monday, November 16, 2009

MAS Among Top 10 Airlines In Global Local Monitor

Malaysia's national carrier, Malaysia Airlines (MAS), is among top 10 airlines in the first Global Local Monitor on airline websites.

Although MAS was No. 10 in the top list, trailing behind other Asian rivals such as Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific and Asiana, the fact that MAS could make it to the Global Local Monitor is quite an achievement.

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-ever Global Local Monitor.

The monitor assesses the efficacy of a site and its level of localisation or adaptation to local language and culture.

Localisation 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, it examines how well an airlines' website is localised by gauging its impact on a 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 localisation review ever conducted by user experience professionals. The Global-Local airline monitor involved five local user experience experts in each country, each reviewing the 10 websites on 30 localisation criteria.

The 10 websites surveyed were those shortlisted for the Skytrax Airline of the year award which annually rates airline performance by more than 16 million air travellers.

The UXalliance investigated whether the airlines was recognised by their outstanding service in the air also deliver the same outstanding service in their online customer experience to users in various locations around the world.

The findings reveal that of the world's 10 top-rated airlines, Emirates, Quantas and Qatar Airways were rated highest in terms of meeting of the needs of local users around the world.

The determining success factors were information in the local language, culturally appropriate character sets, colour schemes and imagery and well-localised calendar formats.

The airlines rated lowest tended to be less developed or representative of the local markets.

Following are the full localisation ratings and rankings:

Airline Rating Rank Emirates 7.76 1

Quantas 7.32 2

Qatar 7.27 3

Singapore 7.26 4

CathayPacific 7.21 5

NewZealand 7.15 6

Thai 6.88 7

Etihad 6.76 8

Asiana 6.49 9

Malaysia 6.37 10

Through its extensive experience in global user research, the UXalliance knows companies that excel in localising their sites have a higher probability of connecting with their customers and maximising profitability of their local websites.

Surprisingly, not a single European or North American airline figured in the top 10 airlines.


Source : Bernama
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