Cheat Sheet for Design Principles for Localization

Owned by shelarsunita (Unlicensed)
Aug 12, 2019
3 min read

This page is a cheat sheet to help design graphics and other artifacts keeping the localization aspects of eGov products. This cheat sheet goes beyond only multilingual.

Technical Considerations

Languages operate differently. That means there may be things you need to keep in mind things on the technical side in order to display text and graphics correctly. Check for technology support for the following:

  • How will the language be displayed?

  • In which direction does the language need to be displayed?

For the above, check that the css supports RTL languages

  • How much space is needed to present the text?

  • Which way will you encode the characters of that language?

  • Will name fields need reversing so that the last name is first and the first name is last?

For the above, it’s estimated that there are more than 100,000 characters in use around the world in different languages! UTF-8 is fine for most markets but UTF-16 is better in Asia.

  • Numeric date, time, calendar, and currency formats should not be hard coded.

  • Dynamic button width and height

Elements to be Considered Specifically for Localization

  • Numeric, date and time formats - Check for the best way to depict date and time in numbers. Whether it should be a 24 hour format, dd-mm-yyyy, dd-mmm-yyyy, or dd-mm-yy.

  • Currency - Since eGov products are primarily for India, check if we should use the Rupee symbol, INR, Rupees, Rs. Also check how the change component of the currency should be depicted.

  • Depiction of Keyboard - Check which keyboard should be depicted. there are many.

  • Collation and sorting - Alphabetical sorting that works in one language may not work in another language, after the design is translated.

  • Symbols, icons and colors - Color remains one of the most powerful vehicles of meaning. However, symbols, icons and colors mean different things in different cultures across the country.

  • Sensitivity to images and graphics with gestures - Gestures, body language, and social cues can be perfectly harmless in one culture, but resonate offensively with another.

  • Forms and input fields - The number of usability issues that come with forms are staggering, from labelling the input fields, to typos or invalid selections. These problems can become even worse when you need to localise the forms.

  • Height of text paragraphs - height of a text paragraph can increase by 30% in other languages

  • Text embedded in images - Try to keep text separate from image so that translation and localization is easier. Keep in mind the expansion of text when designing the image.

  • Choosing the right font(s) - Try to pick a font that supports multiple languages. But, even if you have carefully picked the right font, you might face other issues such as characters that change in height and width. Safe choice is Google’s Noto font. Else, you may pick different fonts for different languages.

Layout


Most Indian languages read left to right. However, Urdu does not. You’ll want to consider the way that your layout appears for RTL languages. The traditional “F” shape layout strong deterrent to users who don’t read or scan pages from LTR.

Space

Most Indian languages require top and bottom space for their vowels and ellipses. The characters too are wider than English. Hence, design should keep in mind these considerations.

Common Patterns

Some patterns are likely to break or are not usable for some localization elements. For example, a horizontal menus, drop downs, etc.

 

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