Designing for the World: An Introduction to Localization

At Spotify, considered one of our core design rules is relevance. Relevance is all about reflecting you as a person: Spotify is made for you — we would like it to really feel personalised —  and a key side of the app feeling private is that it’s tailored for the place you’re positioned, your tradition, and the language you like on your expertise. 

Spotify is on the market in 195 nations and 65 totally different languages (and counting!), and the localization staff’s purpose is to make sure that the Spotify expertise is related for our listeners all around the world. So, how can we go about making Spotify related for everybody who makes use of our app? It’s via a course of known as localization. In this publish, we’ll stroll you thru what localization is and the way it works at Spotify, the way it informs design and the person expertise, and we’ll end with some actionable recommendations on how one can greatest design with world customers in thoughts.

What is localization?

Localization may be outlined in various methods, however at Spotify we give it some thought as the method of adapting our product and content material so it feels native to every listener. This requires attending to know our listeners, and gaining a powerful understanding of native cultures, person behaviors, and market nuances.

The technique of localizing a product additionally contains internationalization, which ensures the product can adapt to new cultures at scale. Internationalization is the method of designing and creating software program in order that it may be tailored to numerous languages and nations with out engineering modifications. For instance, establishing correct date, time, and forex codecs. If you noticed the date 9/12/22, would you learn this as September 12 or December 9? Without internationalization frameworks, the person expertise can develop into fairly complicated. 

Internationalized software program is then tailored, or localized, for a particular area or language by translating textual content and including locale-specific elements.

Localization doesn’t simply imply translation. This is a typical false impression. Translation is one part of how a localized expertise is created, however it’s not the primary perform of Spotify’s Localization staff.

How localization informs design and UX 

Localization is a extremely inclusive self-discipline. The localization staff at Spotify advocates for our listeners internationally, and our major concern is supporting the person expertise of our non-English talking viewers. It’s our job to make sure the Spotify expertise is assembly their wants functionally, culturally, and linguistically. To accomplish this, we work intently with all product capabilities at Spotify to verify we’re not simply pondering from an English-first, Western-centric creation framework. We may match with UX researchers through the Understand It section, product designers through the Think It section, and engineers through the Build It section. 

UX writers (also called content material designers) write deliberately, and the identical stage of intentionality goes into the creation of translated copy. We use our information of how languages perform and range to assist create localizable, scalable, and globally-relevant designs. We do that throughout copy creation (by contemplating fashion, formatting, and tone of voice), in design (by contemplating how versatile our designs have to be to accommodate translations of various lengths, or totally different scripts), and by pondering exterior of our personal tradition or id about how an idea is perhaps interpreted by another person. 

During the interpretation course of, Romance languages reminiscent of Spanish can increase by roughly 25%, which signifies that a button with ample house for an English phrase could now not accommodate its Spanish counterpart. This may be particularly problematic on smaller gadgets, like when utilizing the Spotify app on telephones. Rather than shortening the translations to suit the obtainable house, we collaborate with designers to verify their design is versatile sufficient to accommodate longer translations. Some languages increase as much as 40%!

The localization staff additionally works with our UX writing staff to make sure we’re utilizing the best tone of voice in several markets. We’ve discovered that our listeners in Japan favor a extra academic and direct tone of voice, whereas our Indian viewers tends to favor extra playful and humorous tones. 

We additionally work with our product design staff to know how visible parts may be interpreted otherwise in different elements of the world. In our just lately launched Diwali hub, we discovered that our Indian viewers most well-liked lighter design themes so we modified our designs, which have been initially darker, to higher rejoice the Festival of Lights.

Getting began

So, how will you begin creating for world customers and hold their wants in thoughts?

Designing for localization requires intentional pondering. There is a studying curve! However, the extra you flex this muscle and the extra suggestions you get, the better it’s to comprehend it while you see it.

In the identical means one would work with different product capabilities to assemble enter and suggestions for different design issues, the localization staff offers that very same stage of enter and help. We work with linguists to guarantee that writing and design decisions will scale globally, and might carry out design checks, localizability analyses and supply normal suggestions on writing and designs, to assist designers whereas they’re studying the basics.

Here are some key issues to recollect when designing with world audiences on the forefront:

Avoid

• Creating completely left-to-right designs and experiences. Not all languages go from left to proper. In reality, a few of our key languages on Spotify, like Arabic and Hebrew, are learn from proper to left. This can have an effect on the general structure of the design, as a result of on-screen textual content wants to have the ability to look good ranging from both aspect of the display screen.

• String concatenation. This is what it’s known as when two elements of an entire sentence are break up up. Different languages have totally different grammar buildings, and so the translators have to see the entire sentence collectively in an effort to make all the pieces make sense.

• Assuming that the title of a brand new function or product will translate simply. The localization staff works intently with UX writing, product homeowners, and our translators to assist decide what the most effective title for one thing could also be. This is a really concerned course of that ensures names work domestically, and in addition make sense for our world model.

• Using English as a blueprint for localization. Just as a result of a format or dynamic sample works in English, it doesn’t imply it would work in different languages. For instance, when Spotify was engaged on creating notifications for brand new songs and albums, we have been serious about having one dynamic sample: “[Artist name] released a new [song/album].” However, we needed to re-work the construction of the notification sample as a result of in lots of languages, “song” and “album” have a gender, and we needed to think about the gender of the artist. So, what this meant was that different phrases within the notification would change in accordance with the gender of the phrase or artist. One notification sample couldn’t cowl all of it on this scenario.

• Thinking there is just one language per nation. When merchandise are launched first within the US solely, the localization staff will translate into Spanish, given the numerous variety of listeners utilizing the app in Spanish.

Plan

We can’t at all times keep away from all the pieces, which is why the subsequent step is to Plan. 

• Learn what to search for and make these selections forward of time, which is able to enable for higher localizability. Planning typically requires analysis, design opinions, and suggestions from the localization staff. 

• Some widespread issues to look out for are time, date, and quantity codecs; idioms, slang, and wordplay; emojis, abbreviations, and something culture- or country-specific like folks, locations, traditions, or holidays.