localisation best practices start with the source
TRANSCRIPT
Localisation best practices begin with the source
Photo credit: Rahel Anne Bailie
Copyright © 2016 Scroll LLP
A guide for product and project managers
CONTEXT AND ASSUMPTIONS
THREE THINGS
REMINDERS
RESOURCES
CONTEXT AND ASSUMPTIONS
Content is important
• Content helps customers understand your product, services, instructions, and ultimately your brand
• Content doesn’t fit the supply chain model• Content can’t be managed like data
Content is king
We mock bad translations into English
Just as they mock our bad translations (says “We recommend you wash your hands”)
Content is …
• The new “front door”• How visitors perceive our brand• How people understand what to do• How customers make decisions• Our way to brand differentiation
Lifecycle, not supply chain
The myth of the content supply chain
Source Assemble Organise Deliver Translate Deliver
The reality of the content lifecycle
• Structure/standards• Content model/types• Configure/component• Storage/federation
• Aggregate/syndicate• Transform• Present• Sunset/iterate
• Author/version• Import• Localise• Enhance
• Requirements• Budget• Governance• Iterations
Analysis Acquisition
ManageDeliver
Content is not data
Content is:
<tags> </tags>
Content is …
• Potential information• Human-usable, contextualised data• More context for localisation
12Data
DecemberContent
XmasInformation
Book travel early
Knowledge
12Data
ธนัวาคมContent
Wan Rattha ThammanunInformation
Prepare for touristsKnowledge
THREE THINGS
Manage source content well
• Is your content translation-friendly?• What controls are governing the source
content?• Is content using standards?
1
Translation-friendly content
Editorial standards
• Use plain language principles• Control the vocabulary• Avoid jargon, idiom, slang, euphemisms,
anglicisms, etc• Colours, gestures, images matter• Translation, localisation, transcreation• Test using Google Translate
Source content controls
Source control
• Create a superset of source content• Re-use that content across all outputs
Don’t be too granular – minimum sentence level is the usual recommendation
• Make utmost use of semantic structure and metadata tagging
• If possible, use a power editing environment (CCMS or HAT or XML editor)
Content standards
It’s all about interoperability• W3C Standards (Open Web Platform, Accessibility,
Semantic Web, Web of Devices)• OASIS Standards (DITA (Darwin Information Typing
Architecture), DocBook, XLIFF (XML Localisation Interchange File Format), CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Standard)
• Image standards – SVG• Microformats - schema.org• Metadata standards (RDF, SVG)• ISO standards (taxonomy, thesauri)• RosettaNet Standards (B2B Protocol, Document Exchange)
Processes are critical
• Use established translation workflows• The right type of content developer makes
a huge difference• Working within an Agile team
2
Translation workflows
Around the world in a day (simplified)
Into agency TMS
Machine translation
Post-editing by
translator*
Quality Assurance
Stored and available
Import to repository Export to
agency
* 2K words/day/translator
Content development
Content development map
Technical comms
Marketing writers
Web writers
UXers
Developers
User assistance
writers
Business comms
Journalists
Product managers
Content designers
Agile environments
Source content
• If you do Sprint 0, good time to get the story arc down (how many languages, devices, content connection points, etc)
• Run content creation in parallel with code creation
• Deliver in the same sprint so testing works on everything, including content
Localised content
• Encourage participation in sprints or have representation
• Send out source content on regular basis for localisation
• Build up the translation memory
• Deliver one sprint behind production of source content
• Push localised content back into the content repository
Agile content
Current project using Agile Our design team works in English, and the Agile developers work in English. The product itself is in another language that almost nobody on the team can read, so it doesn’t matter that the wireframes don’t have the final text, and that we often don’t have the final text before the story is signed off.
PROCESS: A writer provides the text by using a HAT (Help Authoring Tool), with attributes on the elements to identify which text block or string is which. A script ingests the HAT output and pushes it into the content-management system. The devs know which string to use because the writer updates the JIRA story with the attribute IDs. When the web app runs, it grabs the intended string from the CMS (which may vary, because we provide adaptive variations).
AUTOMATION: For the writer to get the proper text into the HAT can take up to two weeks, but the sprints are one week. This is because the remote colleagues are numerous and require this time for marketing and legal approvals (highly-regulated financial environment). QA often signs off with the placeholder text that has been put into the HAT, and later, when the series of approvals has arrived (through an automated plug-in), the correct text gets pushed without any further involvement from dev. So, not only doesn’t it matter that the wireframes don’t have the final text, we often literally don’t have the final text when the Agile story is signed off.
COMPLIANCE AND AUDIT: Because the content output is pushed into the CMS via a script (which triggers the HAT build), that meets compliance requirements, as there is no risk of others changing the approved text between the HAT and the end user’s screen.
Translation tools
• Content optimisation• Translation automation• Translation memory
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Content optimisation
Optimising content quality
• Store content in respositories with rich editing environments
• Avoid copy-and-paste; transclude instead• Maintain consistency between structure,
grammar, punctuation, etc• Maintain a consistent tone and voice• Automate with content optimisation
software (acrolinx)
Translation automation
Automate the translation process
• Avoid FTP and other manual transfers• Use a TMS (Translation Management
System)• Automates the translation workflow• Automates the project management side
• Use machine translation followed by human post-editing
• If a “jisty” translation will do (think user-generated content), use translation codes
Translation memory
Translation memory helps you save
• Use a translation memory to reduce time and greatly reduce cost of translation
• Consolidate into a single memory, if possible (or isolate memory for marketing)
• Take ownership of the memory• Keep the memory updated
REMINDERS
Supply chain challenges
The need to manage the “complexity of ‘omnichannel’ selling and customer fulfilment”. More than half (55 per cent) said the demands of e-commerce and mobile-enabled consumers are increasing the number of stock keeping units they have to support. Almost 55 per cent reported they are building new distribution centres, and 48 per cent are building direct-to-customer fulfillment capabilities.
- CIPS
The need to continue to reduce costs while improving customer service and supporting expansion in new markets and product lines. Some 68 per cent of respondents said operating cost reduction is “very important”, compared with 64 per cent in 2012.
- CIPS
Multiple content challenges
• Localisation needs• Usage differences
(e.g. multiple device types)
• Omnichannel environments
• Rising importance of social
• Meeting growth opportunities
• Single language variants• Cross-market content• Localisation and transcreation
• Offering native languages in other markets
• Cross-border commerce adaptations
RESOURCES
Resources
Resources on Agile Content
• Lois R Patterson. Alyssa Fox on Targeted Content and Agile
• Larry Kunz. Technical Writing in Agile• Mary Connor.
How does Agile affect documentation?• James Turcotte.
DocOps: Intelligent Content for the Application Economy
• Patricia Gale. Parkour: Lessons in Agility
RAHEL ANNE BAILIEChief Knowledge Officer
Scroll (UK)
@ScrollUK
• UK’s only full-service content company• Provider of writers, editors, content designers• Content strategy, content engineering, IA and
taxonomy services• Training for content professionals
By email:[email protected]@scroll.co.ukBy telephone:UK +44 (0)203 318 1828 (office)UK +44 (0)7869 643 685 (mobile)
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SCROLLLondon, UK
Copyright © 2016 Scroll LLP