Why translators make good UX designers

In the UX field, almost everyone has a background in some other discipline. Most people I have met have a background in engineering, psychology or graphic design. But so far, I have never met another UX designer who, like me, has a background in translation.

As it turns out, having trained as a translator was great preparation for becoming a UX designer. Why? Because the pillars of both crafts are the same: Know your target audience. Do your research. Immerse yourself.

Know your target audience

For a translator, knowing who will be the target audience is paramount. Before translating a single word, I gather information on the target audience: What is their level of expertise on the subject? What is their cultural background?

This information influences my decision-making during the translation process. Let’s say I am asked to translate a medical paper on ALS. If the translation is intended for specialists of that field, I won’t explain any medical terms, because the target audience will be familiar with them. But if the translation of that same text is aimed at family members of ALS patients, I will adapt the translation: The majority of this target audience will not be familiar with the medical jargon and there will be a greater need for explanations.

When a UX designer starts working on a product, they need to find out the same things about the prospective users: Who are they? What is their level of expertise? What cultural background do they have?

This information will impact my design: If I design a learning app for children, I will use colours, sounds, animations and other elements of surprise to make sure the app appeals to the target audience. But if I design an app that helps delay Alzheimer’s, I want the users to feel safe, so I will use clean fonts, high-contrast colours and familiar elements.

Do your research

AKA “Assumption is the mother of all f*ck-ups”:

When you translate a text, you have to understand what it is all about. Otherwise, there is no way you’ll get it right. If you translate instructions on how to set up a TV box and you have never once looked at the device in question, the translation will be rubbish and the users will get frustrated. This is bad, but it could be much worse: A badly translated operating manual for a medical device might lead to people getting hurt. Hence, research is important!

In the context of UX, if you don’t do your research, your solution will never be great. If you want to create a solution that helps sales people track their leads, you have to understand how they work, what challenges they face, what goals they have. Skip the research phase and the outcome is more likely to be something like this:

Immerse yourself

Contrary to popular belief, knowing and speaking two or more languages doesn’t make you a good translator. You also have to be familiar with the culture of both the source and target language. This is because so many things are said between the lines. There are countless references that you will only become aware of when you are familiar with the culture.

And there’s only one way to become familiar with a culture: Go and live there for a few months. Sure, you could watch all the episodes of Sex and the City and you would learn a few things about New York. But by actually living there for a few months, you will learn a whole lot more.

The same principle applies to aspects of UX design. If I were to come up with an app for field service technicians, I could ask an engineer to describe how they maintain the turbines in a power plant. But this is not the same as actually visiting him at work and following him around for a few hours. If he only describes the process to me, he might not mention things that are obvious to him. However, these things might be of importance to me.

The way I see it, both translators and UX designers communicate between two parties: A translator communicates between parties of different languages. A UX designer often communicates between users and developers. So it is not surprising that both crafts are based on the same principles.