In last the segment I discussed the importance of websites in your localization plan; highlighted a few important criteria for website localization and market reach; and touched on a few things to avoid when localizing websites.

Remember that friend of mine, who picked my brains for website localization tips? Well another old adage or a variation of such comes to mind, as I write this bog article, “If you can’t beat them, hire or acquire them.”  He asked me to join their team.  Flattered once again, I reminded him, that I have my own team, ahem… company to manage.

Translation of copy is a key part of any successful web localization endeavor, but the look and feel is a critical element that must also be considered when reaching across borders.  If they don’t like your look, do you think they will bother reading your amazing copy?

I didn’t receive a BFA in Graphic Design; however I do have experience with helping companies make collateral and websites esthetically palatable for international audiences.  What’s the secret sauce? 

The best answer would be to hire a local marketing and design team to create client materials tailored for the local market. This is what the global advertising and PR firms such as J. Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather do.  This is the path for many global firms in the consumer products and retail industries.  However, this is not the only option to reaching international markets; reaching global markets no longer requires a physical local marketing team to execute a local plan - that’s where website localization fits in.

No website localization conversation is complete without a discussion on design. If it doesn’t look good, it won’t get read. It’s that simple. If you want people to read it, make it visually appealing. 

It’s a science, as well as art, dedicated to website design including colors and layout, which I will defer to the design team experts.  The key point I want to highlight here is to think about the graphics in a manner that helps facilitate the translation and localization process.

Here are a few tips when designing graphics for localization appeal: 

Know your market: Be careful with graphics, colors and culture. Consider images or icons wisely. Connotation or symbolic meaning of images and colors may vary or change across cultures, and could even be offensive or elicit the opposite response. Images relating to the body or gestures may infer drastically different things in different cultures.  For example:

• The foot is considered offensive in Thailand, and the color white is associated with death in many Asian cultures. 
• Maps and atlases can be politically concerning due to various international controversies with borders and place names.
• Pay attention to the photo background. Cityscapes or people scenes have a realistic appeal, hence are often selected for website; it is also important to really inspect the photo background to ensure no offensive or unintentional elements are present (i.e. graffiti, unappealing signs, etc.)

Graphical DTP & Text: Higher Resolution, better quality. Make sure you have access to high resolution and high quality images with source files. Images are worth a thousand words, so choosing images without text may work out well. However, if you do prefer to include text, graphics and images will need translations:

• If text is embedded within the graphic, it is best to work with the source file with the layered editable text, since the source text will need to be replaced with translated copy (e.g. charts, diagrams, graphs, photos and illustrations).
• Allow for text expansion or contraction. When the characters are different than the source language (i.e. English versus Chinese), the layout may need to be reset or aligned ensuring that the new text is properly displayed either within the graphical image or alongside the image.

Heavy elements and speed – Videos and images may slow things down. How fast should websites load in 2016? According to Google – 0.5 to 2 seconds at the most!  Why does speed matter?

• According to Amazon, for every one second delay sales conversions dropped by 7%.
• Walmart discovered that it gains 1% revenue increase for every 0.1 second of speed improvement.

How do we deal with this? That is a question for your webmaster, but one insight to consider from a global perspective, is that not all local markets and audiences in those regions have fast networks or devices. Local infrastructure in many parts of the world is still limited, so when designing a web experience for a local market, the extra “bells and whistles” should be evaluated for rendering speed, feasibility, and access abroad.

So there you have it. Don’t be afraid of images, graphics, and colors when localizing your website. Just be mindful of your audience. 

By the way, have you seen our new look yet? We still haven’t officially announced it yet,  HT Localization’s website now localized in Chinese and Hindi. This means that over a billion more people can enjoy our translation services and offers in their own language!

So there you have it... Websites Do Matter!

… Stay tuned for the next Segment of HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life Series… 

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This article was written by Rachanee Thevenet, Co-Founder of HT Localization.  Rachanee is an Asian-American expat living in Spain with her family.  She loves all things international including food, art, literature, culture, languages and people.  She has years of professional product marketing expertise and global expansion experience.

HT Localization, LLC. is a worldwide translation & localization agency providing a full range of professional language translation services, including social media localization, marketing translations, website translations, software localization, eLearning materials, documentation translations, etc.  With locations in the US, Spain, France, Zambia & Thailand, and coverage across all languages and most industries, HT Localization is well positioned to provide around the globe services for all translation needs.  

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