5 UX writing ideas for localization — Inside GetYourGuide I VolHotels

Deciding to wrap textual content is a crucial determination that must be communicated to the Entrance-Finish Engineers earlier than you localize the copy into all the different languages. For this reason estimating textual content growth is crucial.

There’s no telling which language will increase probably the most for a selected textual content string, making it tough to estimate if the localized copy will match within the design, if the copy must be rewritten extra concisely, or if the textual content growth is so important that it requires the design of the person interface to be modified. It saves lots of time for those who can estimate the best potential textual content growth out of all of the languages you’re translating the string into.

At any time when I’m engaged on a brand new prototype or wireframe, I enter the string I’m writing into Google Translate and see how a lot the textual content expands within the languages the characteristic might be translated into. Utilizing Google Sheets and the Google Translate operate, I created a device that immediately estimates how a lot a string will increase in all of our localized languages. This device means that you can immediately decide what the longest textual content might be and enter it into the wireframe or prototype to see if it breaks the design. You may attempt it out here. 

4. Know your viewers, know your stakeholders

As a UX Author, it’s essential to keep in mind that you’re not simply writing for different English audio system. You’re writing for everybody who makes use of your product, irrespective of the language they communicate. As such, it’s essential to have a tough understanding of how different languages operate. They usually have totally different guidelines that are continuously unaccounted for within the preliminary design of the person interface. This may trigger a complicated (or unhealthy) person expertise in consequence. It’s the UX Author’s accountability to be the voice of those customers in relation to creating new product options or functionalities even when it introduces complexity into the event course of.

For instance, totally different languages have totally different grammar guidelines for pluralization relying on the variety of issues being described. In English: zero tickets, 1 ticket, 2 tickets… onto infinity, whereas the equal translation in Polish: zero biletów, 1 bilet, 2-Four bilety, 5-21 biletów, 22-24 bilety, 25-31 biletów… and so on. These pluralization guidelines are considerably extra complicated to code in consequence. 

Whereas it might add further engineering effort, it is very important advocate for constructing this logic to floor the proper string within the product. It presents an improved person expertise by not making them really feel like second-class residents whereas utilizing the product. It additionally makes your product appear extra reliable and higher constructed for these customers as a result of it’s. UX Writers want to recollect to prioritize all customers, not simply the customers who communicate their language.

5. The additional effort impact

Any time you reference a part in your web site be it a button, a tab, a piece, or a performance within the product, you have to be very cautious about making certain the consistency of the translated copy. You could make the referent constant throughout all localized languages. This doesn’t occur magically, however is the results of the UX Author both discovering the referent in all the localized languages and together with that within the temporary, or detailing the part the string is referencing, it’s location, after which making this consistency a requirement within the localization temporary. 

For instance, when writing navigation directions or FAQs that embody instructions, it’s important to verify the instructions are translated persistently. This may turn into very time consuming, nevertheless it’s important for the usability of the product itself and the good thing about the customers in different languages. If the part names aren’t constant between the FAQ and the sections of the positioning, how will your customers have the ability to discover the factor you’re referencing? Simply since you’ve written one thing a number of instances and are (hopefully) internally constant, doesn’t imply that will probably be translated the identical approach each time and even translated by the identical individual and even the identical firm! 

As a UX Author, your accountability to your customers is to make sure a constant expertise. This extends to making sure consistency of different languages as effectively. It’s best observe to work along with the localization crew to develop a glossary of commonly-used phrases to supply documentation for a way issues are described and named all through the product. 

Thanks, Ian, for sharing your ideas. Excited about bringing user-friendly copy to our prospects around the globe? Take a look at the open positions on our UX Writing and Content & Supply Operations groups.