rantmedia high end website design and development

Bilingual / Internationalisation

Many websites that we develop have a requirement to be bilingual - or function in a variety of languages.

We are intimately familiar with the various recommended standards published by the Welsh Language Board, including “A Guide to Bilingual Design” and “Bilingual Software Guidelines and Standards”. We use these documents as key sources when developing websites, specifically:

• Using or recommending use of a professional translator for any translation requirement.
• Sensitivity to Welsh typographical issues (this is more of a consideration for graphics for print than for websites as the variety of fonts for use on the web is much reduced).
• Sensitivity to CSS line spacing considerations for Welsh language content.
• Using or recommending use of bilingual 'choice' page
• Employing a 'true' language swap feature - swapping a language will always retain the current location within the website.

At a technological level, we typically make use of 'language bundles' for rendering static text as this increases flexibility and makes templates easier to comprehend. We also employ many other language-specific (i18n and l9n) techniques - for example, sorting, dates, times, numbers and searching all need careful consideration.

In all cases, these language considerations are integral to the design and development process - bilingual and internationalisation issues cannot simply be bolted on to an existing design - careful thought must be given to ensure each user is given an equal opportunity to view the site in their own preferred language.