This post will be especially interesting for readers who understand English as well as German. (For those of you who do not understand German, I included some explanations to give you an idea of the things I'm talking about.)

Most of you know that after the recent events, the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson was rescheduled and published earlier than initially planned. This led to rescheduled international publications that of course had to be translated first and then rushed to the market. Unfortunately, in case of the German translation (done by six translators) this shows all too clearly with issues ranging from "weird" to just plain wrong translations. So here are some "highlights".

• The translation of "silicon" as "Silikon" has already been widely discussed (e.g. in the German Amazon reviews). For the English-only readers: "Silikon" is the stuff that, e.g., breast implants are made of (see the Wikipedia entry on Silicone), whereas the correct German translation should be "Silizium". Since the silicon-Silikon pair is one of the common examples of "false friends", it's surprising to see this mistake in a translation by professional translators.
• In other cases, it would have helped if the translators had some basic IT knowledge. Or how else could one explain that "Heathkits came with all the boards and parts color-coded" (English version, p. 16) was translated to "Die Bretter und die anderen Teile in den Heath-Baukästen waren alle farblich codiert" (German version, p. 35)? For English-only readers: seen in isolation, translating "boards" with "Bretter" would be OK, but since "Bretter" in German mainly refers to wooden boards (or planks), the translation seems rather weird in context and should rather have been "Platinen" or "Leiterplatten".
• Another instance of a translation that would be correct seen in isolation (and without background knowledge) can be found in the chapter on the Apple Retail Stores: "His name is listed as the lead inventor on two patent applications on the staircases" (English version, p. 375) became "Er ist namentlich als Haupterfinder auf zwei Patentanmeldungen für die Treppenhäuser genannt" (German version, p. 443). In German, "Treppenhaus" rather refers to a separated part of a building that contains the stairs (see, e.g. this picture of a "Treppenhaus"). Since the staircases are integrated parts of the Apple Retail Stores (instead of located, e,g. behind a wall or doors), the better translation for "staircases" would simply be "Treppen" - which is the translation that is used in other sections of the German version (e.g. p. 268) that probably have been created by one of the other five translators.
• An example of a translation that is wrong in the sense that it means exactly the contrary of what is actually intended can be found next to photograph 19 in the middle of the book, where the German caption says: "Sie ist unberechenbar, und sie ist das willensstärkste Kind, das ich je getroffen habe. Es ist wie eine Belohnung." ("Belohnung" can be translated to "reward".) So what about the English version? It says: "She's a pistol and has the strongest will of any kid I've ever met. It's like payback." Steve Jobs is (ironically) referring to the strong will of his daughter in the sense that he has met his match in her, which can be seen as a payback by destiny, so to speak. So, the German version should rather use words like "Rache" or "heimzahlen" instead of giving the ironic remark a completely different sense by saying that the strong-willed daughter is a "reward".
• And finally, for an example of a translation that is completely mysterious and actually makes no sense whatsoever, one can look at page 326 of the English version, where it reads: "Gates likewise was embarrassed when he saw the videotape of the event. 'I didn't know that my face was going to be blown up to looming proportions', he said." A translation of the second part that would have kept the meaning intact would have been: "Ich wusste nicht, dass mein Gesicht auf bedrohliche Ausmaße vergrößert werden würde." ("looming proportions" - "bedrohliche Ausmaße") But what does the German translation actually say? "Gates war ebenso betreten, als er die Videoaufzeichnung der Veranstaltung sah. 'Ich hatte keine Ahnung, dass mein Gesicht auf lemmingähnliche Proportionen aufgeblasen würde', sagte er" (p. 384). And yes, the English-only readers may have guessed: "lemmingähnliche Proportionen" would mean "lemming-like proportions" in English. As I said, it's a complete mystery how this translation came to be.

So is this picking on translation errors nit-picky? Hey, it's Steve Jobs' biography! If you can be nit-picky about a biography, then it's this one. So let's see what the second edtion of the German version will bring.

English edition: Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. New York: Simon & Schuster.

German edition: Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. München: C. Bertelsmann.

"It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely."

(From the preface to "The Picture of Dorian Gray")

When redesigning a user interface (and all the more when creating a completely new one), it is a good idea to conduct user task analyses, contextual analyses and the like in advance. This helps immensely in gaining a deep understanding of the domain, users, their requirements and their workflows. For usability engineers who are regularly engaging in these kinds of activities, the benefits are obvious. Project teams that already work in the respective domain for a longer time and that are not accustomed with these analyses, can sometimes be doubtful and react with statements like "You know, we are doing this for over 20 years, we know exactly how this should work".

But then, as this TED Talk by Terry Moore shows, just because you are doing something for 20 years or more does not necessarily mean that you are doing it right or in the best possible way. Challenging assumptions from time to time and being open to learning new and unexpected stuff can make all the difference.

Twitter is not only a constant source of information, but also a constant source of opinions. With the way Twitter handles dialogs, you may at some times receive only one point of view, e.g., a link to a piece about the benefits of wireframing, but you may miss out on the other side of the story, in case it is contributed by people who you are not following.

It can often be valuable to reflect on both sides of a story, regardless of which side of the fence you are standing on. Therefore, I collected three examples from the field of UX design, which each one including two points of view that I conveniently subsumed under a catchy (i.e. simplified) heading and classified as “pro” or “con”, respectively. The individual sources are more nuanced, of course, but the headings and pro/con-distinction provide some starting point.

If you stumble across any more “UX design pro/con” stuff, let me know.

"Wireframing is a good thing"

Pro: http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/wireframing-benefits/

Con: http://www.attackofdesign.com/why-wireframes-can-hurt-your-project/

"UX designers should be jacks of all trades"

Pro: http://www.uxforthemasses.com/what-makes-good-ux-designer/

Con: http://www.elisabethhubert.com/?p=1229

"UX and marketing go along well"

Pro: http://uxmag.com/strategy/a-designer-and-a-marketer-walk-into-a-bar

Con: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2010/11/18/the-pernicious-effects-of-adverti...

"There is no particular mystery in animation.., it's really very simple, and like anything that is simple, it is about the hardest thing in the world to do."

If you replace "animation" with "UX design" in this quote from Bill Tytla, there is still some truth to the statement.

There is no "secret knowledge" regarding good UX design to be acquired from hidden sources - there is a multitude of books, websites etc. devoted to the topic. Yet, knowledge alone is not sufficient: talent, experience and perseverance are amongst the "other things" it takes to deliver great UX design.

Very much as with animations.

My German-speaking readers will not need an explanation to understand the rather awkward translation in the Google Mail user interface that is shown below.

For all others: What Google calls "Flaky Connection Mode" in the English version of the user interface is called "unzuverlässiger Verbindungsmodus" in German - which translates to "unreliable connection mode". Since "unzuverlässiger" is not capitalized, it comes across as an adjective that merely describes the type of connection you are likely to receive via that option: an unreliable one. (The English version capitalizes the first letter in "Flaky" to show that the word is part of the name.)

Users might rightfully wonder why they should click on the link at the bottom in order to switch to a "unreliable connection mode".

In his talk at TED conference, Alan Siegel talks about simplicity in legal communications. But then, the kind of simplicity that he describes is desirable for a lot of areas of life and work.

"I define simplicity as a means to achieving clarity, transparency and empathy - building humanity into communications."

Of course, these thoughts resonate with UX professionals. Our job, ultimately, is about humans. And this does not only include the users of the interfaces we are designing, but also all the people we are cooperating with in this endeavor. So, we should not only be "building humanity" into communications with users, but also strive for that goal when communicating with clients and other stakeholders - also to allow them to have empathy for users.

Therefore, when creating deliverables (whether the final user interface or the intermediate deliverables that get us there), we should have this concept of simplicity in mind in order to optimally support the respective communication partners. And we should also keep in mind that simplicity is not the same as (over-)simplification. To say it with Einstein: "Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."

Quick! Name three types of Apple MP3 players!

In certain cases, communication is not endangered by obvious misunderstandings, but by misunderstandings that may at first go unnoticed because they result from implicit assumptions: the parties involved use the same words and don’t realize that their respective concepts do not match.
In his talk, Derek Sivers provides some examples of some seemingly straightforward concepts, e.g. “address”, which of course includes providing a street name and house number, or does it?

From time to time, some “implicit assumptions hunting” may be in order as it keeps us aware of the fact that common terminology does not necessarily mean common understanding. This may be especially true for relatively young “concepts in the making”, such as most of the stuff that UX people are dealing with.
(see also the related post on “Language Barriers in the UX Profession”)

What’s the name of the biggest conference for usability professionals in the German-speaking world? – „Usability Professionals“! (For you English-speaking people, that translates to „Usability Professionals“…)

And what is the German chapter of the UPA called? – “germanUPA” of course.

Makes you think about issues of cross-language communication as well as “UX-Pro – UXPro” vs. “UXpro – client” communication.

Could it be that (unconsciously) creating language barriers leads to problems with adoption of UX practices, e.g. in non-English speaking countries? How real is the danger of using English terms as “usability” or even (gasp) “user experience” so naturally when communicating with non-professionals that we are not aware of (implicit) misunderstandings and the trouble that they can create?