multilingual websites - ux camp europe 2013
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Multilingual Websites
Rémy BlättlerChef vom System, Supertext AGremy.supertext.ch | @swissghostrider
Common mistakes and general knowledge
About me
Remy Blaettler“Chief of the System” at Supertext, a translation and copywriting company
Engineer by trade Spent some time to study and work in the US Now back with my own company Supertext
remy.supertext.ch or @swissghostrider
Automatic language selection
Browser language detectionMy recommendation, even in China are the browsers in an internet café normally set to English
GeolocationMore dangerous, since my location overrides my personal settings.
Allow for easy change and remember the selection.
Flags for language selection
Best place for the language selection
Ok BestFair
Poor
Fair Good
Language selection
Use a Globe or a Map icon
Country and/or Language Selection1. Country/Region2. Language3. Country/Region (Language)
Language selection
Always in native language
Politically correct
No need to step on someone's toes China does not recognize Taiwan as a country Status of Kosovo is in dispute
Use Country / Region for country selection
Rest of the world?
Or “Other countries”
Are you serious???
I would not “rate” countries.
URL design and SEO
www.supertext.chBetter for local contentGoogle knows this is a Swiss site
www.supertext.com/deBetter for general SEOAll links point to the same domain
Cheap translations and SEO
Generally a translated site will be good for SEOMore content Better SEO
But machine translation or very bad translations will lead to a down rank.
Use the Google Translation Widget to your page instead, if you just want to provide a translation.
Translation tools
Translation MemoryStores every translated string Duplicates and similar sentences for free
TerminologyCorporate language in a dictionary Which words are ok or forbidden
CAT (Computer-assisted translation)One tool for all file formats, also for software localization
Strings with Placeholders
You had 10 visitors on Jan 27, 2012.
“You had “ + number + “ visitors on “ + date + “.”
Translated :Am 27. Jan 2012 hatten Sie 10 Besucher.
What the translator gets:“You had”“visitors on”
Strings with Placeholders
Format StringsFormat(“You had {1} visitors on {2}.”, number, date)
Translation:“Am {2} hatten sie {1} Besucher.”
Nice numbers
Plural formsYou had 1 visitors on Jan 27, 2012.
Add multiple versions::
1. You had no visitors on Jan 27, 2012.
2. You had one visitor on Jan 27, 2012.
3. You had 27 visitors on Jan 27, 2012.
Plural forms
Example in Polish with plik = file
1 plik 2,3,4 pliki 5-21 pliko'w 22-24 pliki 25-31 pliko'w
ngettext() can solve this in PHP, Java and .NET
Article
You won a car. => You won a {0}
Replace “Car” with “Boat”, etc.
Works perfectly.
Article
Unfortunately in German:Sie haben ein Auto gewonnen.
But:Sie haben Ferien gewonnen (No article)Sie haben eine Gurke gewonnen. (No article)
=> You could store the article with the value.
Your website?
Let’s look at some websites
You can download the presentation from:
http://remy.supertext.ch
http://remy.supertext.ch/2013/06/multilingual-websites-my-talk-at-ux-camp-europe-2013
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