This presentation shows how developers can use tools to automate management of translations and also invite app users to help in improving translations of their apps. It contains links to scripts we use at Drivemode to automatically upload original strings to and retrieve translated strings from OneSky, the translation management system we use.

1. Improving App Translations
João Orui

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Have you ever tried an app,
and right after installing
you find {any language here}
translations are bad?

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Maybe they are not that bad..
but you find a few:
- spelling errors
- wrong verb conjugations
- wrong genders
- wrong plural forms

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Sometimes they are...
just...
terribly...
wrong!!!

5. What do you do when you
find a wrong translation?
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Option 1:
tolerate it
it's not going to kill you
...... right?

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Option 1:
tolerate it
it's not going to kill you
...... right?

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Option 2:
uninstall the app (or leave website)
ouch >_<

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Option 3:
tell the developer to fix it!
😎
but.. will they really look at it?

10. Some common causes for
wrong (or bad) translations
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11. some common causes for wrong (or bad) translations
(1) Missing translations
Translations fall behind as you add or change features
Result: mix of default language and local language
Example (weather app):
"今日の天気は cloudy です。"
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12. some common causes for wrong (or bad) translations
(2) Machine translated
Quality is good enough for some languages pairs
Form other languages pairs, they're just bad. Really.
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13. some common causes for wrong (or bad) translations
(3) Inconsistency / Wrong contexts
Same term could be translated differently throughout your app.
- 開ける (akeru) / 開く (hiraku)
The translator wasn't provided enough context
- Clear: is it about weather? is it an action to clear some text on the screen?
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Translations don't need to be bad.
WE
CAN DO
BETTER!

15. How to avoid wrong
translations?
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16. How to avoid wrong
translations?
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improve
translations

17. How to avoid wrong
translations?
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improve
translations
WITH THE HELP OF YOUR USERS!

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You can ask your users for help!
* if you got a deep pocket, ignore most of this presentation and hire a team! 🤑
how to improve translations?

19. ask users for help
Translation Management Systems (TMS)
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20. ask users for help
Translation Management Systems (TMS)
There are decent TMSs out there providing:
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21. ask users for help
Translation Management Systems (TMS)
There are decent TMSs out there providing:
‣ translation history management
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22. ask users for help
Translation Management Systems (TMS)
There are decent TMSs out there providing:
‣ translation history management
‣ glossary management
18

23. ask users for help
Translation Management Systems (TMS)
There are decent TMSs out there providing:
‣ translation history management
‣ glossary management
‣ context attachment to strings (text and screenshots)
18

24. ask users for help
Translation Management Systems (TMS)
There are decent TMSs out there providing:
‣ translation history management
‣ glossary management
‣ context attachment to strings (text and screenshots)
‣ interfaces to accept translations from your users
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25. 19

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Get creative on
recruiting more translators!
how to improve translations?

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Translation progress: 95~100%
😃
a link on the "about" screen or page footer should be OK

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Translation progress: 90~95%
😐
get slightly more aggressive:
add a link to one of your main menus?

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Translation progress: 75~90%
😥
Not good. A link in the header of your main page may help?

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Translation progress: < 75%
😱
Emergency mode!
Target enthusiastic user with messages?
Check the numbers. Is it really worth keeping that target language?

31. asking help from users
How we ask for help in Drivemode
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An item is added to our main menu
when translation progress gets
under 95% for that language

32. asking help from users
How we ask for help in Drivemode
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Customer support: when someone
requests for translation fixes or for a
new language support, we refer
them to our translation
management system.

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Make things easier
for you.
for translators.
for everyone.
how to improve translations?

34. make things easier for you
Automate as much as possible!
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35. make things easier for you
Automate as much as possible!
‣ upload new strings as they're added (APIs exist for this!)
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36. make things easier for you
Automate as much as possible!
‣ upload new strings as they're added (APIs exist for this!)
‣ import translations from your release scripts
28

37. make things easier for you
Automate as much as possible!
‣ upload new strings as they're added (APIs exist for this!)
‣ import translations from your release scripts
‣ find missing placeholders or wrong formatting with lint
rules (management systems can help with this)
28

38. make things easier for you
Automate as much as possible!
‣ upload new strings as they're added (APIs exist for this!)
‣ import translations from your release scripts
‣ find missing placeholders or wrong formatting with lint
rules (management systems can help with this)
‣ take screenshots and upload them to translators
28

39. make things easier for you
Automate as much as possible!
‣ upload new strings as they're added (APIs exist for this!)
‣ import translations from your release scripts
‣ find missing placeholders or wrong formatting with lint
rules (management systems can help with this)
‣ take screenshots and upload them to translators
‣ automatically identify identical strings to copy or merge
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Translations don't need to be bad.
WE
CAN DO
BETTER!

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Translations don't need to be bad.
WE
CAN DO
BETTER!
TOGETHER, WITH OUR USERS!

42. one last thing...
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Internationalization and localization requires an enormous
amount of effort from both business and engineering sides.
Translations are a just a pice of that effort.
When you do translate your app, aim to improve it! Tools are
there. You and your users can benefit from it.
We can definitely improve translation in our apps!

44. Links
▸ Translation Management Systems
▸ https://www.oneskyapp.com/
▸ https://www.smartling.com/
▸ https://www.transifex.com/
▸ Some scripts we wrote for our Android app
▸ Upload original strings to OneSky: https://gist.github.com/jfsso/5cd988dcf815c7833a85b01cd53deac6
▸ Download translated strings from OneSky: https://gist.github.com/jfsso/
c82102dded15a1cefc53994a96dfed6d
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