global content strategy: don't get lost in translation

!PRESENTED BY!

Melinda Flores!Associate Director, Content Strategy!VSA Partners

Global Content Strategy Don’t Get Lost in Translation November 18, 2014

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Agenda

•  Big in Japan: the Japanese digital experience •  Defining global content strategy •  Taking your content on the road •  Don’t get lost in translation: Best practices •  The case for localization

GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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Big in Japan


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Does this baby make me look fat?


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Shopping online in Japan


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“The coordinates are easy at longish length!”


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Rakuten Global Market site


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Content overload? Not in Japan.


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Why is the Japanese experience so different?


•  Character comfort •  Need for a high degree of information and assurance •  Mobile, mobile, mobile •  Lack of hierarchical contrast •  Low adoption of new programming languages

http://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-different/

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Product pages are packed with information


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Simplified English product page


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Simplified English product page, 6 months ago


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Go global or go home

GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS 13

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What is global content strategy?


The planning, creation and management of content, in terms of:

Governance

Workflow

People Work

Global content strategy is concerned with scaling content for global markets !in a way that is efficient, consistent, relevant and sustainable.

….around the world

Substance

Structure

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The benefits of a global content strategy


•  Tell a consistently compelling story about your offering, !no matter where audiences find you

•  Make sure your content is ready to scale for global markets •  Streamline translation and publication workflows to !

save money and time •  Improve content reach and performance

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Taking your content on the road


•  Less is more (cheaper and faster to translate!) •  Replace idioms and obscure language with common

expressions •  Adhere strictly to English grammar rules •  Be exceptionally clear, e.g., use nouns with the words !

this, that, these, and those •  Be aware of visual cues that may be irrelevant or even

offensive in other cultures •  Create a corporate glossary (!!!)

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Why a corporate glossary?


•  Safeguards your product and company branding •  Preserves your company trademarks, service

marks, copyrights, and so on •  Ensures that everyone in your organization uses the

same terminology to describe the same things •  Makes your content easier to read for people of all

reading levels •  Lowers the price and time it takes to translate the

content into multiple languages •  Helps to ensure the quality and consistency of

the translations

http://www.contentrules.com/blog/simple-rule-3-real-editors-dont-do-it-without-a-terminology-manager/

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Translation: Best practices


•  Use native-speaking translators who are ideally based in the target country for translations (at least !1 person to translate and another for QA)

•  Find translators who are subject matter experts and skilled at marketing translations, whenever possible, to nail style and tone

•  Create separate experiences for each country !(not language) and don’t forget about differences among dialects—there are significant differences between French Canadian and the language spoken !in France

•  Store and track all translations in an owned terminology database to save time and money

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Translation vs. localization vs. transcreation


Translation Localization

Transcreation

Content No change (direct translation of existing content)

May be altered to be more culturally appropriate/relevant

New content may be developed to suit local needs

Design No change (same images)

May be altered to be more culturally appropriate/relevant

Change to suit new content/local needs

UX No change (same layout)

May be altered slightly as required by content needs

Change to suit new content/local needs

Adapted from: http://www.slideshare.net/IntelligentContent/planning-your-globalcontentstrategyswisher

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The case for localization


Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World, Szuc/Quesenbery

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Lost in translation


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Localization means addressing user needs


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Localization win or fail?


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Global markets require localized, culturally relevant content


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Additional Global Content Strategy resources


•  Contentrules.com and anything written by Val Swisher on Slideshare—she knows her stuff!

•  Milengo.com global content strategy blog •  Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World,

Szuc/Quesenbery

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Questions?


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Thank you!


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