Post by habiba123820 on Nov 6, 2024 2:19:55 GMT -5
Multilingual website design is a bit of a misleading phrase because it primarily highlights the graphical parts of a website that make up the user experience - without clearly identifying the underlying architecture needed to make it work.
By thinking about it from an architectural perspective, you’ll be able to better understand the true scope of the task. You’re essentially rebuilding your website for a different language, and supporting that process are behind-the-scenes components that your visitors never see. If more people thought of it this way, they’d understand why proactive planning is so necessary.
More often than not, a company starts their design process with a strict focus on English. However, because of this, they miss out on wordpress web design agency opportunities to internationalize their content early on and ensure that they will be able to localize and translate it easily. This is the essence of multilingual website design: a proactive mindset.
9 Multilingual Website Design Best Practices to Get You Started
In our experience, many companies find themselves working with three or four languages at once. This complex project can quickly explode without careful planning and best practices. Here are some important strategies you can implement to minimize issues in the localization process .
1. Establish the scope of the project.
Are you localizing just a few pages, the entire site, or specific sections? This scoping review will help guide you as you outline your plan and begin to gather your available assets. It will also help you assess the resources you’ll need. A simple page or two of adaptations may not require a full localization process. But a full site certainly will.
2. Audit your assets
Localization gets complicated very quickly. To navigate the complexity, you need to take a look at your content requirements. If you’re dealing with a simple five-page website and plan to translate only into Spanish, then it may be possible to do a simple copy/paste job with Google Translate. However, if you plan to add other languages in the future, you’ll need a more robust solution — a partnership with specialized localizers. Multimedia projects, in particular, require specialized assistance.
3. Describe the workflow
Will strings be published immediately after translation, or will they need to undergo local review? Remember that the success of localization depends on the final quality of your translations. Your workflow will need to account for multiple review and feedback cycles. A centralized platform can help you track these tasks as they move through the pipeline. For any complex localization strategy, plan to develop agile localization workflows that are flexible and responsive to the many moving parts in your ecosystem.
4. Focus on the most significant use case
. What is the purpose of the translated content? Is it to support an e-commerce site, provide news, or fulfill orders? By knowing the most prominent use case for your site, you can make it the central focus and build your other platforms around it.
5. Create a local market payment plan
Don’t make the mistake of translating your content but failing to provide a local payment option so that visitors in foreign markets can actually close the deal. The sooner you have these unique details in mind, the better. Unless you’re working with a third-party site that does currency conversions for you, like Paypal, you’ll need to consider how your prices will change with changes in the currency market. Payment processing and conversion fees will also require consideration to ensure a consistent pricing model across all segments.
By thinking about it from an architectural perspective, you’ll be able to better understand the true scope of the task. You’re essentially rebuilding your website for a different language, and supporting that process are behind-the-scenes components that your visitors never see. If more people thought of it this way, they’d understand why proactive planning is so necessary.
More often than not, a company starts their design process with a strict focus on English. However, because of this, they miss out on wordpress web design agency opportunities to internationalize their content early on and ensure that they will be able to localize and translate it easily. This is the essence of multilingual website design: a proactive mindset.
9 Multilingual Website Design Best Practices to Get You Started
In our experience, many companies find themselves working with three or four languages at once. This complex project can quickly explode without careful planning and best practices. Here are some important strategies you can implement to minimize issues in the localization process .
1. Establish the scope of the project.
Are you localizing just a few pages, the entire site, or specific sections? This scoping review will help guide you as you outline your plan and begin to gather your available assets. It will also help you assess the resources you’ll need. A simple page or two of adaptations may not require a full localization process. But a full site certainly will.
2. Audit your assets
Localization gets complicated very quickly. To navigate the complexity, you need to take a look at your content requirements. If you’re dealing with a simple five-page website and plan to translate only into Spanish, then it may be possible to do a simple copy/paste job with Google Translate. However, if you plan to add other languages in the future, you’ll need a more robust solution — a partnership with specialized localizers. Multimedia projects, in particular, require specialized assistance.
3. Describe the workflow
Will strings be published immediately after translation, or will they need to undergo local review? Remember that the success of localization depends on the final quality of your translations. Your workflow will need to account for multiple review and feedback cycles. A centralized platform can help you track these tasks as they move through the pipeline. For any complex localization strategy, plan to develop agile localization workflows that are flexible and responsive to the many moving parts in your ecosystem.
4. Focus on the most significant use case
. What is the purpose of the translated content? Is it to support an e-commerce site, provide news, or fulfill orders? By knowing the most prominent use case for your site, you can make it the central focus and build your other platforms around it.
5. Create a local market payment plan
Don’t make the mistake of translating your content but failing to provide a local payment option so that visitors in foreign markets can actually close the deal. The sooner you have these unique details in mind, the better. Unless you’re working with a third-party site that does currency conversions for you, like Paypal, you’ll need to consider how your prices will change with changes in the currency market. Payment processing and conversion fees will also require consideration to ensure a consistent pricing model across all segments.