A Design Professional, Artist
and Photographer.
LOCALIZATION
Languages across products
MY ROLE
I was responsible for managing and delivering UX localization on 4 products at GoPro. We launched Hero4 localized in Chinese and launched Hero5, Hero5 Session and Karma Controller in 9 languages English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. My responsibilities were to:
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Understand limitations on our different screen technologies
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Find or create appropriate fonts for the devices
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Work with designers and translators to create guidelines for character and line limitations
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Manage and address localization bugs during QA testing
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Develop a process for handoff from Design > Development > Translation
SITUATION
HERO4 was the first product in which we introduced a new language. We adjusted our current string implementation process to include Chinese. This process utilized a spreadsheet that was setup up to include Identifier / English String / Chinese String so developers could then run a script to pull the appropriate string with each identifier.
The process had its share of issues, but it was an effective way to quickly get both languages into builds for testing so we could bug and make adjustments accordingly.
It was difficult to scale the current process into HERO5 and HERO5 SESSION which required an additional 7 languages. Another pain-point was the inability to hand-off a spreadsheet to a translation team so they clearly understood context and limitations. We handled this by including character count and line count for each string in the document. FW and QA provided builds and screenshots that provided context for the translations. This quickly became a difficult source to manage. We had several designers working on the interfaces of our devices that required adjustments made to the string spreadsheet. And we had new builds coming at a regular cadence that would require updates to strings, new strings and adjustments to layouts to accommodate unique needs.
TASKS
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Eliminate the manual process and automate it
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Develop new process with partners to reduce disruption and understand their needs
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Implement new process into current design and development cycle
ACTIONS
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Understand and document partner requirements and expectations
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Implement a centralized location for content
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Develop a plugin for Sketch to export and import strings and identifiers
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Run tests on features within the design cycle
RESULT
The new process we created is far more efficient for our designers and reduced the risk of errors. Because we standardized on design and delivery tools, we where able to test and validate this process with development. This effort has saved the company countless man hours in previously maintaining a labor intensive spreadsheet. Now the localization process has been integrated into the full design process that keeps the designers working smarter, not harder.
