The Importance Of Interface Text (part 2) - Globe-trotting (
Page 8 of 8 )
Last, but not least, we come to the part about making your application
suitable for international use. Localization of your interface text is
something you need to consider and plan well in advance of deployment. If
you decide you want to do this, the process and guidelines to develop
interface text gets quite intensive - multiply the usual effort by the
number of languages you are planning to localize it in!
There are two main considerations to keep in mind when embarking on a
localization project: the technical aspect of developing and translating
the interface text in the requisite languages, and the actual development
of the interface text.
While the technical code required to implement internationalization are
beyond the scope of this piece, an important tip is to place the different
translations of your interface text in separate language files, one for
each language, instead of hard-coding it directly in your source code.
Implementing language switching is then simply a matter of finding the
correct language file and displaying its contents in the appropriate places.
You will find, though, that the larger consideration lies with the
development of the interface text in a manner that allows the translation
to be automatically handled by a resource. The following should be your
prime concerns:
- Definite words: While developing the interface text, ensure that you use
terms that cannot be interpreted in different senses in other languages.
- Consistency: Ensure that your messages are consistent in tone and usage
of terms; inconsistencies can be further obscured when translated into
different languages.
- Formats: Date, time, temperature, currency and numbering conventions vary
vastly from country to country; these will have to be accounted for.
This is by no means a comprehensive list, and even for the items listed
above, the nuances are too large to be covered within this piece. The basic
aim should always be to develop a database of clear and consistent text,
with minimal jargon, local language flavor (exclamations or phrases) and
ambiguities.
Also, besides the interface text itself, the interface must be designed in
a manner to accommodate differences in label or message widths due to the
change in language; most of the time, text written in English will expand
when converted to other languages. Application text areas will have to be
designed to accommodate that.
And that's about it for the moment. I hope you found this article enjoyable
and useful, and that it offered some tips for the next time you need to
create text for your application interface. Happy writing!
Note: Examples are illustrative only, and are not meant for a production
environment. Melonfire provides no warranties or support for the source
code described in this article. YMMV!
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