Former United States president and war criminal George W. Bush gave a speech in Australia, directing a v-for-victory hand gesture at the assembled crowd. It wasn’t received the way he intended.
What he failed to realize is that this gesture means a lot of different things to a lot different people. In Australia, the v-for-victory gesture means the same as giving someone the middle finger in the United States.
This is all to say that localization is difficult.
Localizing your app, web app, or website is more than just running all your text through Google Translate and hoping for the best. Creating effective, trustworthy communication with language communities means doing the work to make sure your content meets them where they are.
A big part of this is learning about, and incorporating cultural norms into your efforts. Doing so will help you avoid committing any number of unintentional faux pas.
In this best case scenario these goofs will create an awkward and potentially funny outcome:
In the worst case, it will eradicate any sense of trust you’re attempting to build.
Trust
There is no magic number for how many mistranslated pieces of content flips the switch from tolerant bemusement to mistrust and anger.
Each person running into these mistakes has a different tolerance threshold. Additionally, that threshold is also variable depending on factors such as level of stress, seriousness of the task at hand, prior interactions, etc.
If you’re operating a business, loss of trust may mean less sales. Loss of trust may have far more serious ramifications if it’s a government service.
Let’s also not forget that it is language communities and not individuals. Word-of-mouth does a lot of heavy lifting here, especially for underserved and historically discriminated-against populations. To that point, reputational harm is also a thing you need to contend with.
Because of this, we need to remember all the things that are frequently left out of translation and localization efforts. For this post, I’d like to focus on icons.
Iconic
We tend to think of icons as immutable glyphs whose metaphors convey platonic functionality and purpose.
A little box with an abstract mountain and a rising sun? I bet that lets you insert a picture. And how about a right-facing triangle? Five dollars says it plays something.
However, these metaphors start to fall apart when not handled with care and discretion. If your imagery is too abstract it might not read the way it is intended to, especially for more obscure or niche functionality.
Similarly, objects or concepts that don’t exist in the demographics you are serving won’t directly translate well. It will take work, but the results can be amazing. An exellent example of accommodation is Firefox OS’ localization efforts with the Fula people.
Culture impacts how icons are interpreted, understood, and used, just like all other content.
Here, I’d specifically like to call attention to three commonly-found icons whose meanings can be vasty different depending on the person using them. I would also like to highlight something that all three of these icons have in common: they use hand gestures to represent functionality.
This makes a lot of sense! Us humans have been using our hands to communicate things for about as long as humanity itself has existed. It’s natural to take this communication and apply it to a digital medium.
That said, we also need to acknowledge that due to their widespread use that these gestures—and therefore the icons that use them—can be interpreted differently by cultures and language communities that are different than the one who added the icons to the experience.
The three icons themselves are thumb’s up, thumb’s down, and the okay hand symbol. Let’s unpack them:
Thumb’s up
What it’s intended to be used for
This icon usually means expressing favor for something. It is typically also a tally, used as a signal for how popular the content is with an audience.
Facebook did a lot of heavy lifting here with its Like button. In the same breath I’d also like to say that Facebook is a great example of how ignoring culture when serving a global audience can lead to disastrous outcomes.
Who could be insulted by it
In addition to expressing favor or approval, a thumb’s up can also be insulting in cultures originating from the following regions (not a comprehensive list):
- Bangladesh,
- Some parts of West Africa,
- Iran,
- Iraq,
- Afganistan,
- Some parts of Russia,
- Some parts of Latin America, and
- Australia, if you also waggle it up and down.
It was also not a great gesture to be on the receiving end of in Rome, specifically if you were a downed gladiator at the mercy of the crowd.
What you could use instead
If it’s a binary “I like this/I don’t like this” choice, consider symbols like stars and hearts. Sparkles are out, because AI has ruined them.
I’m also quite partial to just naming the action—after all the best icon is a text label.
Thumb’s down
What it’s intended to be used for
This icon is commonly paired with a thumb’s up as part of a tally-based rating system. People can express their dislike of the content, which in turn can signal if the content failed to find a welcome reception.
Who could be insulted by it
A thumb’s down has a near-universal negative connotation, even in cultures where its use is intentional. It is also straight-up insulting in Japan.
It may also have gang-related connotations. I’m hesitant to comment on that given how prevalent misinformation is about that sort of thing, but it’s also a good reminder of how symbolism can be adapted in ways we may not initially consider outside of “traditional” channels.
Like the thumb’s up gesture, this is also not a comprehensive list. I’m a designer, not an ethnographic researcher.
What you could use instead
Consider removing outrage-based metrics. They’re easy to abuse and subvert, exploitative, and not psychologically healthy. If you well and truly need that quant data consider going with a rating scale instead of a combination of thumb’s up and thumb’s down icons.
You might also want to consider ditching rating all together if you want people to actually read your content, or if you want to encourage more diversity of expression.
Okay
What it’s intended to be used for
This symbol is usually used to represent acceptance or approval.
Who could be insulted by it
People from Greece may take offense to an okay hand symbol.
The gesture might have also offended people in France and Spain when performed by hand, but that may have passed.
Who could be threatened by it
The okay hand sign has also been subverted by 4chan and co-opted by the White supremacy movement.
An okay hand sign’s presence could be read as a threat by a population who is targeted by White supremacist hate. Here, it could be someone using it without knowing. It could also be a dogwhistle put in place by either a bad actor within an organization, or the entire organization itself.
Thanks to the problem of other minds, the person on the receiving end cannot be sure about the underlying intent. Because of this, the safest option is to just up and leave.
What you could use instead
Terms like “I understand”, “I accept”, and “acknowledged” all work well here. I’d also be wary of using checkmarks, in that their meaning also isn’t a guarantee.
So, what symbols can I use?
There is no one true answer here, only degrees of certainty. Knowing what ideas, terms, and images are understood, accepted by, or offend a culture requires doing research.
There is also the fact that the interpretation of these symbols can change over time. For this fact, I’d like to point out that pejorative imagery can sometimes become accepted due to constant, unending mass exposure.
We won’t go back to using a Swastika to indicate good luck any time soon. However, the homogenization effect of the web’s implicit Western bias means that things like thumb’s up icons everywhere is just something people begrudgingly get used to.
This doesn’t mean that we have to capitulate, however! Adapting your iconography to meet a language culture where it’s at can go a long way to demonstrating deep care.
Just be sure that the rest of your localization efforts match the care you put into your icons and images. Otherwise it will leave the experience feeling off.
An example of this is using imagery that feels natural in the language culture you’re serving, but having awkward and stilted text content. This disharmonious mismatch in tone will be noticed and felt, even if it isn’t concretely tied to any one thing.
Different things mean different things in different ways
Effective, clear communication that is interpreted as intended is a complicated thing to do. This gets even more intricate when factors like language, culture, and community enter the mix.
Taking the time to do research, and also perform outreach to the communities you wish to communicate with can take a lot of work. But doing so will lead to better experiences, and therefore outcomes for all involved.
Take stock of the images and icons you use as you undertake, or revisit your localization efforts. There may be more to it than you initially thought.
Translations
This post has been translated into Korean by sehyun hwang.