I’m used to run my own computers and “for home use” accounts in French, my mother tongue. Even my old iPad and my not-too-old iPhone run in French. Canadian French, to be precise, an important distinction for both text-to-speech and Siri. So when apps and devices are too USA-centric, it shows.
Worse are hastily-made translations, as if running in languages other than English were at the bottom of a long checklist of features. Lots of small mistakes can be noticed, from text that don’t fit to downright bad translations. But those are nitpicks compared to how this were in the world of Internationalization (i18n) up to the 90s. All operating systems now come with multiple language support built-in, and even let you assign different languages to different user accounts (on Windows 7 you need to have the “Ultimate” edition). Before, choosing a language was made when you chose one boxed version of the software over another, and the choice was irrevocable. Worse, system directory names even changed depending on which language you chose (now a translation is done one-the-fly, but the command-line always shows the original name).
Yes, English is now the lingua fanca, yet I still think it is worth the effort to make software accessible in many languages by the onset, not as an afterthought. That means thinking of using UTF–8 encoding for all text strings, making it easy to adjust GUI elements to variable-length translations, and even thinking ahead a little bit for right-to-left scripts. Doing so makes it clear that the software is not the result of a self-centered, arrogant culture (I’m looking at you, Silicon Valley hipsters), but rather one that embraces others. If not, you’ll be scratching you head, asking yourself why your cool iPhone app can’t reach foreign markets.
Published on September 27, 2012 at 21:29 EDT
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