{"id":4250193,"date":"2016-02-16T13:06:26","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T13:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/key-considerations-when-testing-right-to-left-language-sites\/"},"modified":"2016-02-16T13:06:26","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T13:06:26","slug":"key-considerations-when-testing-right-to-left-language-sites","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-nl\/insight\/key-considerations-when-testing-right-to-left-language-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Key considerations when testing right-to-left language sites"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tKey considerations when testing right-to-left language sites\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\n\t<\/div>
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\n\t\tCraig Lawrenson\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\tWith a rise in enterprise organisations implementing localisation strategies across their digital touchpoints, multi-language sites are becoming increasingly important to improving customer experience and achieving global success.\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tThere are over 600 million right-to-left (RTL) language speakers worldwide, so it\u2019s unsurprising that support for RTL websites is ever increasing.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tTesting RTL language sites\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tThere are specific challenges when designing and testing a RTL language site, as a right-to-left website is not just a \u2018flipped\u2019 version of a left-to-right (LTR) version.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tWhen testing RTL sites, you need to always \u2018think from the right\u2019 \u2013 I find that it helps to think of it as a book that opens from the right, as opposed to the left.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tIt is best practice to change the machine locale to that of the language site being tested, as there are certain elements, such as a calendar widget form control, that require the locale to be set before serving the correct format.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tThere are a few common elements where problems are often encountered. These should form part of a key checklist of things to consider when it comes to testing RTL websites.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tText alignment\/direction\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tThis is not just a case of aligning text to the right; the direction of the text should read right-to-left as well.\u00a0 One obvious indicator that this hasn\u2019t been implemented correctly, is if the punctuation appears at the beginning of the text, rather than at the end.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\u0646\u0635 \u064a\u0633\u062a\u062e\u062f\u0645 (\u0645\u062d\u0627\u0630\u0627\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0646\u0635) \u0625\u0644\u0649 \u0627\u0644\u064a\u0645\u064a\u0646.\u00a0
paragraph using (text-align) right.
\u0646\u0635 \u064a\u0633\u062a\u062e\u062f\u0645 (\u0627\u0644\u0625\u062a\u062c\u0627\u0647) \u0645\u0646 \u0627\u0644\u064a\u0645\u064a\u0646 \u0625\u0644\u0649 \u0627\u0644\u064a\u0633\u0627\u0631.

paragraph using (direction) RT\u00a0\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tNumber alignment\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tEven in languages which are written from right-to-left, numbers are still read from left-to-right. \u00a0Pay particular attention to things like date and time formats, and make sure these are correct.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tOrdering\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tConsider the order of items within the user interface.\u00a0 For example, the header, navigation menus or promos.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tFor instance, if the LTR header is:\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tLogo | About Us | Case Studies | Contact Us<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tRTL would look like this:\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tContact Us | Case Studies | About Us | Logo<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tand not like this:\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tLogo | About Us | Case Studies | Contact Us<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tSimilarly, for promos, if LTR order is:\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tPromo1 | Promo2 | Promo3<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tRTL would look like this:\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tPromo3 | Promo2 | Promo1<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tBear this in mind when testing carousels as well.\u00a0 Any \u2018next\u2019 or \u2018previous\u2019 buttons would change position, and the transition of the items within the carousel would also change.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tDropdown fields\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tThe dropdown indicators should appear to the left of the field, as opposed to the right. Also, if the list of values is long enough to scroll the list, then the scrollbars should appear on the left of the list of values.

(IMAGE UNAVAILABLE)\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tScrollbars\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tScrollbars should appear to the left.\u00a0 This is true for the page as well as content within a page, for example,\u00a0dropdown lists, multi-line text boxes, etc.

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