The Translators Keep Asking What the Words in Your App Mean

Your product is launching in four new languages, and the translation agency has started sending questions. Dozens of them. What does Sync mean here, is it a verb or a button? Is Archive something the user does or a place things go? Who is the you in Are you sure? At first it feels like an interruption. By the third batch you start to realise what they are telling you.

Every one of those questions is a place where your own words were unclear. English speakers can often guess the meaning from context. Translators cannot guess, because the same English word may need three different words in German or Japanese depending on what it really means. They are the first readers who have looked at every piece of text in your app with full attention, and they have found the ambiguity.

So treat their questions as a gift, and answer them properly. A one word reply such as button does not help much. Say what the screen does, what the user is trying to achieve and what happens after they tap. If you can, send a screenshot. Many questions disappear the moment someone can see where the text sits.

Then fix the source. If Sync means two different things in two places, use two different words. If a message joins pieces of text together, like You have plus a number plus items, rewrite it as one complete sentence, because word order and plurals change between languages. Avoid jokes and idioms in interface text. They rarely survive translation.

Add a short note to every string as you write it from now on. Where it appears, what it refers to, how long it can be. Most translation tools have a field for this, and most teams leave it empty. Filling it in takes a few seconds and saves an email each time.

Ask the translators what would make their job easier. They often have a list, and it usually includes things that would help your English users too.

Something good tends to happen afterwards. Text written so that it can be translated is clearer for everyone, including the person reading it in their first language at the end of a long day.

– Asael Shinder