internationalization-design

Internationalization Design

Text Expansion

Translated text is often longer than English:

Language	Expansion
German	+30%
French	+20%
Japanese	-10 to +10%
Arabic	+25%

Design with expansion in mind. Don't fix button widths.

RTL Support

• Mirror the entire layout (left↔right).
• Icons with direction: flip arrows, skip/back controls.
• Icons without direction: don't flip (search, close, check).
• Text alignment: right-aligned for RTL content.
• Bidirectional text: handle mixed LTR/RTL content.

Cultural Adaptation

• Color meanings vary (red = luck in China, danger in West).
• Icons: mailbox, hand gestures, animals have different meanings.
• Date formats: MM/DD/YYYY vs DD/MM/YYYY vs YYYY-MM-DD.
• Name formats: family name first in many Asian cultures.
• Currency: symbol position, decimal separators.

Technical

• Use lang attribute on html and content blocks.
• Use dir="rtl" for RTL content.
• Unicode support throughout.
• Don't concatenate translated strings (grammar differs between languages).