diff --git a/horizon/test/tests/views.py b/horizon/test/tests/views.py
index edfcc6bd06..86b5e5c9df 100644
--- a/horizon/test/tests/views.py
+++ b/horizon/test/tests/views.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ from horizon import views
 
 from django import forms
 from django.test import client
+from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
 from django.views import generic
 
 FAKENAME = "FakeName"
@@ -54,6 +55,10 @@ class ViewWithTitle(views.PageTitleMixin, generic.TemplateView):
     page_title = "Fake"
 
 
+class ViewWithTransTitle(views.PageTitleMixin, generic.TemplateView):
+    page_title = _("Fake")
+
+
 class PageTitleTests(test.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
@@ -65,16 +70,21 @@ class PageTitleTests(test.TestCase):
         p.request = self.request
         return p.dispatch(self.request)
 
-    def test_render_title(self):
+    def test_render_context_with_title(self):
         tm = ViewWithTitle()
-        context = tm.render_title({})
+        context = tm.render_context_with_title({})
         self.assertEqual("Fake", context['page_title'])
 
-    def test_render_title_override(self):
+    def test_render_context_with_title_override(self):
         tm = ViewWithTitle()
-        context = tm.render_title({'page_title': "ekaF"})
+        context = tm.render_context_with_title({'page_title': "ekaF"})
         self.assertEqual("ekaF", context['page_title'])
 
+    def test_render_context_with_title_lazy_translations(self):
+        tm = ViewWithTransTitle()
+        context = tm.render_context_with_title({})
+        self.assertEqual("Fake", context['page_title'])
+
     def test_no_title_set(self):
         res = self._dispatch(PageWithNoTitle)
         self.assertEqual("", res.context_data['page_title'])
diff --git a/horizon/views.py b/horizon/views.py
index 5aadaefd40..9da293d33e 100644
--- a/horizon/views.py
+++ b/horizon/views.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 
 from django import shortcuts
 from django import template
+from django.utils import encoding
 from django.views import generic
 
 import horizon
@@ -21,19 +22,46 @@ from horizon import exceptions
 
 
 class PageTitleMixin(object):
+    """A mixin that renders out a page title into a view.
+
+    Many views in horizon have a page title that would ordinarily be
+    defined and passed through in get_context_data function, this often
+    leads to a lot of duplicated work in each view.
+
+    This mixin standardises the process of defining a page title, letting
+    views simply define a variable that is rendered into the context for
+    them.
+
+    There are cases when page title in a view may also display some context
+    data, for that purpose the page_title variable supports the django
+    templating language and will be rendered using the context defined by the
+    views get_context_data.
+    """
+
     page_title = ""
 
-    def render_title(self, context):
+    def render_context_with_title(self, context):
+        """This function takes in a context dict and uses it to render the
+        page_title variable, it then appends this title to the context using
+        the 'page_title' key. If there is already a page_title key defined in
+        context received then this function will do nothing.
+        """
+
         if "page_title" not in context:
             con = template.Context(context)
-            # NOTE(sambetts): Cast to unicode to ensure lazy translations
+            # NOTE(sambetts): Use force_text to ensure lazy translations
             # are handled correctly.
-            temp = template.Template(unicode(self.page_title))
+            temp = template.Template(encoding.force_text(self.page_title))
             context["page_title"] = temp.render(con)
         return context
 
     def render_to_response(self, context):
-        context = self.render_title(context)
+        """This is an override of the default render_to_response function that
+        exists in the django generic views, this is here to inject the
+        page title into the context before the main template is rendered.
+        """
+
+        context = self.render_context_with_title(context)
         return super(PageTitleMixin, self).render_to_response(context)
 
 
diff --git a/openstack_dashboard/usage/views.py b/openstack_dashboard/usage/views.py
index 0afa926de9..bd10ad00df 100644
--- a/openstack_dashboard/usage/views.py
+++ b/openstack_dashboard/usage/views.py
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ class UsageView(tables.DataTableView):
             response_kwargs.setdefault("filename", "usage.csv")
         else:
             render_class = self.response_class
-        context = self.render_title(context)
+        context = self.render_context_with_title(context)
         resp = render_class(request=self.request,
                             template=self.get_template_names(),
                             context=context,