My experiences with internationalization and cultural differences have firmly established the crucial importance of scalable design. Navigating these diverse landscapes has reinforced my belief that a robust and adaptable design approach is not just an advantage; it is a necessity for thriving in a global context.
As a product designer, I frequently collaborated with marketing teams on cross-border campaigns, where we often encountered challenges. It was not uncommon for an intern to confidently suggest using Google Translate as a solution.
When someone suggested that they would use ChatGPT to translate the branding hook and convey the message, we would laugh. That’s not how it works.
The message may be accurately translated, but it also needs to resonate with the audience to be effective. These are two distinctly different matters.
Spanish is widely spoken in both South and North America. For example, Chevrolet, a well-known car brand, launched a new vehicle called the ‘Nova’ in Latin America. While General Motors encountered no issues with the name in North America, they faced challenges selling the same car in the South. This was due to the fact that ‘Nova’ translates to ‘Doesn’t Go’ in Spanish, which negatively impacted its marketability.
While the Spanish-speaking population in North America understood the meaning behind the name, a key difference was the cultural context and bilingualism. The Spanish speakers in North America did not view the name in a strictly linguistic way, as they were accustomed to English names and branding.
In contrast, consumers in Latin American markets were more attuned to the Spanish meanings of product names. This resulted in an unfortunate translation issue that became an unforeseen marketing obstacle. Local dealers and potential customers found it difficult to buy a car whose name was associated with a mechanical fault.
This clearly illustrates that the same linguistic group can respond in distinct ways to identical content, shaped by their cultural context and their relationship with the dominant commercial language in their region.
When we were designing the form, we initially focused on clients from the Dutch and German markets. However, we soon had to include requirements from countries such as Switzerland, Australia, and India. Below are the banking information requirements we collected for the project:
🇳🇱 Netherlands: Requires a standard IBAN along with a 10-digit bank account number.
🇩🇪 Germany: Requires a mandatory BIC code along with the IBAN and a 10-digit account number. Note that a BIC code is not necessary in the Netherlands.
🇨🇭 Switzerland: Requires a 5-digit BCN (Bank Identifier Code) and a 12-digit account number.
🇮🇳 India: Requires a bank account number that can be between 11 and 16 digits long, along with a mandatory IFSC (Indian Financial System Code), which is not used in Europe.
🇦🇺 Australia: Requires a mandatory BSB (Bank-State-Branch) code, which is entirely different from the requirements in the aforementioned countries.
Compression and Expansion Ratios
When considering translation to accommodate various languages, it is crucial to take into account the compression and expansion ratios.
To put it simply:
Expansion Ratio: This measures how much a target language expands in comparison to the source language. For instance, the phrase “Food Poisoning” in English translates to “Lebensmittelvergiftung” in German. The English version contains 13 characters, while the German version has 22 characters, resulting in a 69.2% increase in character count. To address this expansion, forms or input fields must be designed larger for the German versions. On average, the expansion ratio from English to German is around 35%, though in certain cases, it can be double that rate.
Compression Ratio: This is the opposite of the expansion ratio and assesses how much the target language is shortened in comparison to the source language after translation. For example, Chinese and Korean are highly compressed languages. The compression ratio from German to Chinese ranges from 40% to 50%, depending on the type of content.
Understanding UX Debt: The Importance of Universal Design
When we fail to design for a global or universal user experience, we leave issues to be addressed later, leading to the accumulation of UX debt. This can negatively impact development time, the quality of the user experience, and user trust. In many cases, it can even result in users churning and never returning.
As experienced professionals, it is our responsibility to guide junior team members on the importance of system flexibility and the early identification of edge cases. We should strive to create designs that accommodate universal requirements, even if it means requiring a few extra clicks now.
What Can You Do Differently Today?
There are many things you can change in your approach starting today:
- Consider global and universal user experience (UX) from the very beginning.
- Document any constraints you encounter and factor them into your design process.
- Introduce flexibility in your forms, labels, input fields, and layouts.
- If possible, involve global users in your early-stage research and testing.
- Collaborate closely with localization experts and engineers.
- Expand your knowledge of the culture of the region you are designing for.
- Design with context in mind, rather than focusing solely on components. Instead of waiting for your design to fail, proactively consider your global users and identify areas for improvement.
By implementing these changes, you can enhance your designs and create a more inclusive experience for users around the world.
