4 ms·

Back when I was working on GOV.UK Verify we had URLs that looked something like /verify-passport for English and /cy/verify-passport for Welsh. I made the decis

Back when I was working on GOV.UK Verify we had URLs that looked something like /verify-passport for English and /cy/verify-passport for Welsh. I made the decision that if readable URLs was a design goal they should be readable in both languages, and ended up localising them all to (for example) /verify-passport and /gwirio-pasbort. No idea if anyone ever noticed, but sometimes it’s nice to sweat the small stuff.

marcinreal 2y ago
I had the same thought for a restaurant website that served multiple languages. I figured customers might glance at the URL when it's being shared, and appreciate it being in their language. What do you do when the translated slug happens to be the same in multiple languages? I ended up still having the country code in the slug.
- robin_reala 2y ago
  Luckily we only had <10 user-visible pages in our part of the service, so I didn’t have to worry about that.
ave_b_2011 2y ago
I really like this - because technology is for everyone but can end up being harder to use because of design decisions. Thanks for sharing this.
nicbou 2y ago
This is important to do, in my opinion. You should not assume that non-English-speaking users all understand a little bit of English. It also confers some SEO benefits. That being said, if the URL has a language code (/en/), it would be good to change the language code manually, and still end up on the right page. Sometimes the language switcher is really well hidden. However a visible language switcher is even better.
simonw 2y ago
That’s classy.
travisjungroth 2y ago
I’m going to make a business website in 7+ languages and this comment makes me want to do the same thing with the URLs. Thanks!
qmmmur 2y ago
What was it like working for gov uk?
- robin_reala 2y ago
  Best time of my professional career, broadly (although there were obvious frustrations). I’d 100% recommend at least a couple-year stint at GDS if it’s an option, as it completely changes the way you think about a huge number of things.

marcinreal 2y ago

I had the same thought for a restaurant website that served multiple languages. I figured customers might glance at the URL when it's being shared, and appreciate it being in their language. What do you do when the translated slug happens to be the same in multiple languages? I ended up still having the country code in the slug.

robin_reala 2y ago
Luckily we only had <10 user-visible pages in our part of the service, so I didn’t have to worry about that.

ave_b_2011 2y ago

I really like this - because technology is for everyone but can end up being harder to use because of design decisions. Thanks for sharing this.

nicbou 2y ago

This is important to do, in my opinion. You should not assume that non-English-speaking users all understand a little bit of English. It also confers some SEO benefits. That being said, if the URL has a language code (/en/), it would be good to change the language code manually, and still end up on the right page. Sometimes the language switcher is really well hidden. However a visible language switcher is even better.

simonw 2y ago

That’s classy.

travisjungroth 2y ago

I’m going to make a business website in 7+ languages and this comment makes me want to do the same thing with the URLs. Thanks!

qmmmur 2y ago

What was it like working for gov uk?

robin_reala 2y ago
Best time of my professional career, broadly (although there were obvious frustrations). I’d 100% recommend at least a couple-year stint at GDS if it’s an option, as it completely changes the way you think about a huge number of things.