MAS among top 10 airlines in global local monitor

2009/11/16

NEW YORK: 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. -- Bernama