Localisation and Usability

Some interesting observations after a post and comments over at The Watchmaker Project

It turns out, after me jumping to conclusions, that the interface for Newsgator Online (my favourite newsreader for the last year or so since I went web native) varies depending on locale. From a brief look at the US, French and UK versions the US version has a newer (and from a quick look nicer) interface than the others.

First the US only version:

And then the UK (the French version is the same, except with the relevant language changes):

The usability issue I have with this is the user chooses the locale when they login, wherever you login from (newsgator.com, newsgator.co.uk or newsgator.fr). OK so it’s an edge case issue, but I now know I have a choice of interfaces. Do I stick with being honest and saying I’m a brit and get an seemingly inferior interface? or do I lie and pretend to be a yank? If I was a French speaker I wouldn’t have that choice either? I dont actually know yet. I’m definately going to lie a few times just to see the new features and the interface though.