L10n:WorldReady: Difference between revisions

From MozillaWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
 
(38 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
== Introduction ==


[[File:En-v-world.png|250px|thumb|right|English Active Daily Users v. rest of world]]
[[File:Us-v-world.png|250px|thumb|right|US ADU v. rest of world]]


Draft
Those that participate on the Mozilla Project can be proud of the work that first enabled 24 localized versions to ship simultaneous with Firefox 1.0, and the fact that we have grown that to over 95 localized versions available for the latest release.
 
= Introduction =
 
[[File:En-v-world.png|350px|thumb|right|English Active Daily Users v. rest of world]]
[[File:Us-v-world.png|350px|thumb|right|US ADU v. rest of world]]
 
Those that participate on the Mozilla Project can be proud of the work that first enabled 24 localized versions to ship simultaneous with Firefox 1.0, and the fact that we have grown that to over 83+ localized versions in Firefox 4.0 through a lot of hard work and contribution from thousands of volunteers around the world.


It is pretty well understood across the project in every area of work that that users and contributors around the world are a key factor in impact we have on the Mozilla Project.
It is pretty well understood across the project in every area of work that that users and contributors around the world are a key factor in impact we have on the Mozilla Project.
Line 18: Line 14:
The "Mozilla World Ready" project is about creating greater awareness around localization issues, educating new participants to the project, and taking steps addressing these problems that limit our ability to reach and connect users around the world.  Its about doing all the things that we currently do, but making things "world-ready" earlier in the development cycle to make them easier and faster to accomplish.  Its about improving the quality of all our efforts across the world, in every locale, including en-US, and factoring in world wide sensibilities that will improve Firefox and the way we talk about our products and projects.
The "Mozilla World Ready" project is about creating greater awareness around localization issues, educating new participants to the project, and taking steps addressing these problems that limit our ability to reach and connect users around the world.  Its about doing all the things that we currently do, but making things "world-ready" earlier in the development cycle to make them easier and faster to accomplish.  Its about improving the quality of all our efforts across the world, in every locale, including en-US, and factoring in world wide sensibilities that will improve Firefox and the way we talk about our products and projects.


= General Strategy for Improved l10n =
== Internationliazation Training Sessions ==
 
We need to find ways for localization teams provide early feedback and to say "yes" early in development, rather than "no" late in the development. 
 
We need to move beyond the model of doing development work on products and marketing campaigns and then "throwing over the  wall" to localization teams. 
 
In general, we need to not treat localization as an addition to projects, but an early and integral part of the development work.  For example when on a tight schedules we need to avoid deferring consideration of localization issues and say 'we'll do l10n in phase 2. 
 
We are inventing all kinds of new technical terms in creating new features on the web and in browsers so we need to use the most simple language that will provide the greatest widespread meaning for our users around the world.
 
We need to think about, and document, workflows and apply an engineering discipline to creative work to find points where the localization peer review and global feedback can be injected.  This includes improving the way we communicate information about feature names, marketing campaigns and all the content we produce.  We need to find ways to 'test and evaluate' the global understandability of product names, features, and content we produce; and where possible communicate in terms that attempt to be widely understood without instruction.  The feedback from this testing and evaluation will help us to simplify they way we communicate to all users around the world including those in English or have minimal technical skills.
 
We need to find ways to provide early "labeling" of projects and campaigns to communicate the markets where they are intended and participation is expected by localization teams. Some examples of this kind of high level labeling and communication might be:
 
* This Campaign is intended to reach all Mozilla Communities around the world
* This Campaign is intended as an experiment designed for possible use in X region(s) or Y locale(s)
 
Other examples are to avoid idioms and use a core vocabulary of about 1500 words known as "Special English" plus any terms needed to describe product features or campaigns. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_English , http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/BE_1500 and http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/wordbook/ for examples that will help to simplify messages, make them more understandable to users, and help to speed it translation.  When words are used beyond this special or basic lists its important to make those decisions consciously and provide rational or explanation that will help other to understand the intended meaning.
 
= Top Ten Ideas for Improving Localization =
 
== 1. Consistent Naming/Messaging Situations ==
 
When the message needs to stay very close to the same across locales this requires maxim amount of early coordination between development/creative lead and global representatives,  since the terms will be required to be universally used around the world.
 
Generally, these kind of situations happen for things like product names, manifestos, mission statements.
 
These are the kinds of specific example that have been problematic in product naming and consistent messaging in the past.
 
  personas -> directly translates into some languages as "people", drawing confusion when the feature is about visual changes to the chrome.
 
  workspace -> scratchpad  --> tools | scratchpad
 
  sumo site design -- selection of site theme/style
  US - friendly and approachable v. international preference for more formal and concise
  Nurse and cat have pornographic connotations in some Asian markets (Try google search for "Asian Nurse" or Nurse Cat Japan)
  In this case SUMO design has been made flexible to remove the image.  JA is using this. See: http://support.mozilla.com/ja/home 
  Maybe this design is more suitable for locales where a more formal approach is desirable.  Supporting possible multiple designs
  for sumo might have been, or still might be possible, but expensive.  In this way we might have constructed a "friendly design"
  and a "formal/concise  design" and each locale could opt in to the design best suited to the locale.
 
== 2. Situations Where Adapted Content is Desirable ==
 
Where we want names and concepts to be adapted to a locale, state those things up front.  Write content and concepts of campaigns in Basic English first, or just share more of these early planing designs flexible global outreach (message needs follow generally, but then tuned for specific locales)
        Requires additional work by development/creative lead to explain intent of the campaign and were local flexibility is desired.
        Then localize it to en-US and or to be hip or trendy. 
        Maybe some some kind of "markup language" can be used to express both the intent and the implementation
        (experiment proposed by pfinch and stas; see [1] and [2])


== 3. Avoiding slang, trendy catch phrases ==
In 2021 we kicked off a new training sessions initiative to increase awareness and educate new participants. Training sessions happen online every other week and are recorded so if you cannot attend live you can still benefit from the initiative.  


Avoid slang, trendy catch phrases, or phrases that are a "play-on-words" with possible multiple meanings in the basic design. When they are required explain the intended affect or meaning. Some examples:
Intl Training Session 1: Internationalization & Localization ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16JLhtlHCaT-Po7wJZvRXkRkB0e7FJD7ykEyeuUJ6Kb8/ Slide Deck]) ([https://mozilla.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=beeb5ce4-2dbd-496d-a8bf-acb0013e0dce Video])
   
  "triple threat" v. multi-dimensional


  Awesome ---  http://matejnovak.com/2011/05/10/owning-awesome/
Intl Training Session 2: Languages, Regions, and Language Matching ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GQ2DCT-25adK2xeVxOMa0mmouPIytMOYgtg5AXlaKJM/ Slide Deck]) ([https://mozilla.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b3c4ec0f-b518-4a4f-a4e4-acbe014d1378 Video])
  Awe actually meant “terror” or “dread” until the late 1700s, from which point on it retained only the slightly softer meaning of
  “reverential fear or wonder” (all definitions from the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).  Awesome came along in the late 16th century
  meaning “filled with awe” and then “inspiring awe” about a century later, both of which are still in use today. The positive
  colloquialism meaning “outstanding, remarkable” didn’t come along until the mid 20th century (interestingly enough, that came after the
  adverb form, awesomely, began to mean “outstanding, very” in the late 19th century). All that brings us to today and the late 1900s slang
  meaning of “excellent” or “marvelous.”
    or  "scary cool..."


== 4. Define Terms ==
Intl Training Session 3: Numbers, Units and Currencies ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oMTqJAQmo8TPxoOCMmFLTGUxhgbA6JE3IoeXltThtco/ Slide Deck]) ([https://mozilla.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5d8d1630-0c01-4f2f-84bc-acd301428d99 Video])


Define use of nouns, verbs and adjectives when there are used in the design or copy
Intl Training Session 4: Dates, Times, and Calendars. ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WaBtKuA0iJeNL260wVdxBIVj_2I8kv6OVL6AwwyoE_E/ Slide Deck]) ([https://mozilla.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b861ea84-f259-429d-9dfd-ace1016bbf30 Video])


== 5. Allow Enough Space for Text ==
Intl Training Session 5: Input Methods ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1taEFYrHrGALPFGnqgnCzESDyax1Jza4wJBR0GXwGG00/ Slide Deck]) ([https://mozilla.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=24dd8277-2704-4469-9714-acf00115b7f8 Video])


Please consider the length of copy and character limitation when creating designs. For instance, it might take a Latin language 30 characters to express a 15 character English string. Historically, we've run into this issue with Affiliate buttons where space is severely constrained.
Intl Training Session 6: User Preferences - Language & Regional Settings ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1taEFYrHrGALPFGnqgnCzESDyax1Jza4wJBR0GXwGG00/ Slide Deck]) ([https://mozilla.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=c87efb77-1548-4352-aa88-acfd012eb090 Video])

Latest revision as of 19:32, 1 April 2021

Introduction

English Active Daily Users v. rest of world
US ADU v. rest of world

Those that participate on the Mozilla Project can be proud of the work that first enabled 24 localized versions to ship simultaneous with Firefox 1.0, and the fact that we have grown that to over 95 localized versions available for the latest release.

It is pretty well understood across the project in every area of work that that users and contributors around the world are a key factor in impact we have on the Mozilla Project.

70% of Firefox users use non-English versions of Firefox, and more than 80% of Firefox users are outside of the United States.

Even though we have made great progress in the localization process and simultaneous shipping of more localized versions, to more people around the world, that than any other software development organization there are still a lot of things we can do to improve.

The "Mozilla World Ready" project is about creating greater awareness around localization issues, educating new participants to the project, and taking steps addressing these problems that limit our ability to reach and connect users around the world. Its about doing all the things that we currently do, but making things "world-ready" earlier in the development cycle to make them easier and faster to accomplish. Its about improving the quality of all our efforts across the world, in every locale, including en-US, and factoring in world wide sensibilities that will improve Firefox and the way we talk about our products and projects.

Internationliazation Training Sessions

In 2021 we kicked off a new training sessions initiative to increase awareness and educate new participants. Training sessions happen online every other week and are recorded so if you cannot attend live you can still benefit from the initiative.

Intl Training Session 1: Internationalization & Localization (Slide Deck) (Video)

Intl Training Session 2: Languages, Regions, and Language Matching (Slide Deck) (Video)

Intl Training Session 3: Numbers, Units and Currencies (Slide Deck) (Video)

Intl Training Session 4: Dates, Times, and Calendars. (Slide Deck) (Video)

Intl Training Session 5: Input Methods (Slide Deck) (Video)

Intl Training Session 6: User Preferences - Language & Regional Settings (Slide Deck) (Video)

Retrieved from "https://wiki.allizom.org/index.php?title=L10n:WorldReady&oldid=1234804"