Lingo is an open-source design tool that helps designers and developers efficiently create and manage multiple language versions of their products. Lingo integrates directly into the Figma workflow, allowing designers to translate text elements without leaving their design environment.
After conducting research, i figured there is a real need for tools that help with products globalization this gave the idea of creating a plugin enabling designers to work seamlessly across multiple languages who often struggle often struggle to visualize and implement multilingual interfaces, which became "Lingo."
Building Lingo.
I collaborated with Kolade, an exceptional designer. We conducted thorough user research and refined the interface through multiple iterations, prioritizing intuitive usability and workflow efficiency to maximize productivity during active design work.
What problems does Lingo solve.
Designers lack efficient tools to create and maintain multilingual designs, forcing them to manually manage text variations across languages. Lingo drastically increases efficiency and reduces time wastage for designers and engineers when working on global products.
Edge Cases / User experience considerations.
Managing text expansion in languages that require more characters than english and maintaining special formatting within text blocks.
Integrating an undo feature to help designers quickly revert translations in case of mistakes.
Language auto detection, for a more intuitive user experience
The backend is powered by LibreTraslate Machine Translation Api. Big shoutout to LibreTranslate!
Use Cases
Quick Multilingual Testing: Test designs in different languages instantly within Figma.
International Client Communication: Present work to global stakeholders in their native language.
Component Design: Ensure design systems work with all language variations.
Conclusion
The project is open source so feel free to join the community, Lingo currently supports 5 languages. You can find it on figma community plugins. The code is hosted on a public repo in github the link would be added below.
Figma - https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1504282060914964770
Github - https://github.com/ajaoseyi/Lingo
We would love you to interact and give us your reviews on Lingo!
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