7 Elements to Consider for Your Language Translation Project

Language translation is becoming a much-in-demand service due to factors including globalisation, legal and regulatory requirements, Brexit, technology developments etc.

We’ve identified seven key areas to focus on when planning your project.

1. What is The Purpose of the Project?

The purpose of the translation may be to meet regulatory requirements e.g. food labeling to meet Brexit requirements or could be specific industry terminology like medical to inform the medical community that uses specialist vocabulary. The process is not as simple as swapping one word for its’ immediate translation but considering the target audience and the culture to achieve meaning and impact.

2. Detail the Project Requirements

The first step is to scope the project requirements and the key question to answer at this stage is what type of content is being translated; is it a manual, video, app, website, or book?

Due to technology needs, you may have digital and non-digital formats that need some redesign or reformat to target your destination. You also may need to look at future-proofing because if you have a physical manual for example but that may need to go online and be in a digital format at a later date.

The scope is important as the scale of the task might be bigger than first envisaged and may increase costs. You may need to do a phased implementation to manage chunks of the project and have several release increments to do market testing before refining and having a final release.

3. Create a Project Timeline

You may have a tight deadline in which case agile project methodology may be needed to deliver on time and with the right quality and this will also cost more as extra resources are needed. The best method, in this case, is to reduce the features to get on-time delivery without compromising quality and you can create phases to the project so that you can implement incrementally e.g. if you have several formats do the physical version before the digital version or vice versa and release the other version later.

However, the best method is always to plan ahead with the detailed project requirements so that ample time for proofreading, amends, changes in scope and formats, multiple translations etc. can be accounted for and built into the scoping, quality checks and feedback amends.

4. Project Specific Requirements

When looking at your scope consider the amount of proofreading that needs to be done, for example, a second translator may be needed to review the clarity and terminology is locally correct and in line with communication objectives. This may also require an in-house and agency collaboration so that elements such as brand messages and themes are translated correctly.

5. Special Requirements

Part of the scoping element would be to look at special requirements such as regulatory legislation and an example of this would be food labeling where the types of product, where it is being sold and number of SKUs would influence the project requirements and deliverables.

6. Formats of Translations

Special Needs: You may have translation requirements that require a special format for disability needs such as Braille, extra-large texts etc.

Transcription: This will require an appreciation of the audio length, quality of audio and formats.

Multilingual Voice-Overs: This impacts how your project will look like as you will need to consider the style of the voice-over and the language it is being delivered in.

Interpreting: When using an interpreter, it is important to take into account location, length of time, certifications, and experience for your project.

Transcreation: This involves creating marketing assets from conception from advertising to slogans so they meet brand objectives. You want to evoke the same emotion cross-culturally with impact.

7. Consultancy

You may have the need for a consultant to help you prepare, implement and project manage your translation requirements. This can be very useful if you use an expert to manage first-time and complex projects that require the complexity and scope to be identified fully before embarking ongoing into translation services. The consultant can also help manage the project to completion.

These are 7 key areas to consider when planning your language translation needs as setting your objectives, detailing and managing deadlines, feedback and delivery can be complex.