Web Design Implications for Translated Web Sites

Translating content is often a first step for any organization that wishes to address international audiences with their web site. Yet, most companies and organizations still deploy a single web site, developed solely in their home country language, to address the totality of their global audience. One 2005 study found that less than half of the Forbes 900 firms who target international customers actually bothered to create any kind of a tailored experience for them.

Translating web content sounds straight forward on the surface: identify a few key pages, translate them into French, English, Spanish and Chinese and you are done! Successfully supporting your outcomes with translated content requires a more thorough approach however. This white paper discusses various aspects of how to effectively translate and deploy web-based content.

Internationalization and Localization

Internationalization and localization are common terms used in the industry when discussing the creation of web sites for international audiences. Internationalization refers to the ability of your systems to support content, functionality and transactions in other languages and currencies. Localization is the process of actually creating a site through the use of internationalized systems and tools. While your content management, e-commerce and other systems must have internationalization features, localization is where you will either succeed or fail. A lack of internationalized systems can prevent success but only targeted and effective localization will create success.

Spatial Design and Language

Spatial differences in how languages are written have a direct impact on how a localized web site template should be structured. Romance languages all flow from left to right, top to bottom on a printed page. This has strongly influenced web site design in those countries, with corporate identity and navigational tools tending to be anchored in the upper left corner of the page. However, many other languages are written with different orientations.

Chinese, for example, is traditionally written in columns that are read top to bottom and right to left. Chinese characters also take up a different amount of space than conveying the same concept in English. This will impact the size of navigation bars and other tools, creating awkward presentation without adjustment. Simply translating a page from English to Chinese, without altering the structural layout of the page, may cause a substandard experience for the web site visitor who is a native Chinese speaker.

Machine vs. Human Translation

Every executive is lured by the inexpensive price tag for machine translation of their content. You often see sites with links for translated content that merely run through an automated translation process. What comes out often resembles the equivalent of linguistic hamburger. While advances have been made, purely machine translated content is always going to be a poor experience for the reader, which does you no favors in achieving the ultimate outcomes for the site.

Human translation is still the best approach for creating content for international audiences. Human translators do not simply switch your words to those of the target language: they ensure the meaning of your original content is effectively conveyed to your audience in translation. Ultimately, if your content is worth translating for an international audience, it is worth the investment of a human to ensure your desired meaning is conveyed. A good translator will avoid problems like Kentucky Fried Chicken experienced when their motto was translated as “eat your fingers off” in Chinese.

Information Architecture

There are many options for how you organize translated content on the Web. The best approach will depend upon the extent of your translation. Some sites may simply translate a few key pages while others will develop separate, completely localized, web sites for each targeted country. The following are some of the most common organizational schemes for translated content:

A few key pages in other languages, linked from the originals.
Small collections of country or language specific content on the main site, linked from the home page and/or international section.
Complete translation of all content on the site, deployed in language or country-specific, parallel, subdirectories of the main site.
Separate web sites on their own country-specific domains that may or may not be linked to from other global and national organization sites.

In all cases, you have to make it easy for your international audiences to find the content that is targeted to them. If you publish just a few pages in another language, provide a prominent link to that content on your home page and throughout the site. Completely localized sites should also be linked from your global home page as well as your other marketing channels for those markets. The FedEx global home page provides an example of providing links to localized, country-specific, sites for their customers. Wikipedia’s home page is also a good example of how to drive traffic to language-specific sites.

Beyond Translation

While translation is the first step, creating effective, localized, web content is about more than simple translation. It is about conveying the appropriate meaning to your target audience in support of your desired outcomes. This will almost always bring cultural differences into play. Culture influences how we perceive people, relationships, images and more. A comprehensively tailored site will address these issues to determine the content that should be presented along with translating it to a new language. As you improve your support for international audiences, begin to assess cultural differences beyond language in your design, content and features.

C. David Gammel is an online media consultant who helps his clients to unleash the strategic potential of the web. David created one of the earliest web-based, global, membership organizations, which had members in 24 countries. You may reach David at david@highcontext.com or +1 (410) 742-9088.

High Context Consulting, LLC