Palex Journal: Workflows

WORKFLOWS

Correct translation of user interface (UI) elements is a fundamental aspect of help section usability. If attention is not paid to UI translation, users may be confused by textual requirements to press a non-existent button or open a non-existent tab.

Linguistic Lead

4 min read

10 Feb 2021

WORKFLOWS

How to Handle UI Terminology Translation in Help

Milena Milyaeva

At Palex, the opinion of who is responsible for translation quality changed several times over the last few years. At first, the translator was the one to get all the scolding after a client sent back bad reviews. After all, the translator is the one who didn't choose the right terms for financial market transactions, house plants, or medical instruments.

Later, the responsibility was partially shifted to the project manager, because they are the ones that choose the people to work on the project. As such, if the translation is bad, the PM is responsible for putting a linguist on the job who is unfamiliar with the subject matter. This system seemed logical and existed at Palex for several years.

Alexander Barabash

Group Leader

8 min read

23 Oct 2019

WORKFLOWS

Translation quality assurance: who is responsible for it at an LSP

Illustration: Freepik

You always have to remember that standards and rules are nothing more than a guide—it's the minimum that you need, not everything. It's the foundation upon which you build a quality translation from the pieces of information you receive from the client—their insight, their expertise and their wishes. Quality doesn't mean following the norm. Quality is making your client happy.

Olga Simonova

Linguistic Lead

10 min read

20 Jun 2019

CLIENTS, WORKFLOWS

Translation correction by client: why it is good and what to do the feedback

I'm a linguistic lead in our company. I've analyzed hundreds of clients' complaints and spent hours explaining why we can't change the translation of one or another term. And after these hours, I still received requests to change it to what the client wanted. A normal reaction to this would be to give up and do what the client asks, but it's important to understand that it's not about an incompetent reviewer or freelancer, rather about the lack of communication between the freelancer and the client due to the endless number of intermediaries involved.

Kamil Mustafin

Linguistic Lead

10 min read

13 Jun 2019

CLIENTS, WORKFLOWS

Translation review: how to avoid miscommunication between translators and reviewers

Imagine, you come to the office in the morning, and while your computer is powering up, drink your coffee, thinking of the great day you have ahead. After all, you turned in all of the current projects yesterday and left with a clean slate. When you see your inbox, there are 28 new translation requests. You're horrified — a part has to be done before lunch! The other part — right after lunch. That may be all right, but you know that you'll get more urgent requests right after lunch. While you're thinking about the best way to approach this situation, you get three more requests

Yulia Prokhorenko

Project Coordinator

9 min read

7 Jun 2019

WORKFLOWS

Quick translation: how to deliver on time and do a good job

From the first days of its existence, our company has translated texts about information technology — networks, protocols, hypervisors and the like. For many years, we worked with an experienced editor who knew almost everything about network administration. He could easily configure a Linux virtual machine or add a computer to a domain. We had no doubts that he was qualified for the job.

One day, however, we noticed an unhealthy trend: we were consistently failing at least one out of every five customer's reviews.

Alexander Barabash

Group Leader

10 min read

30 May 2019

WORKFLOWS

Good translation: how to ensure it by content classification

Let's say you receive a letter from your client: "We need to translate only five words, but our budget is already exhausted this month. We will be grateful if you can do this for free." You want to make your client happy and agree without any hesitation. But it turns out that there are three glossaries, eight screenshots, and strict requirements regarding the number of characters that come with these five words. Most linguists would ask for a minimum fee for this kind of work. So, making your client happy got you to a negative budget and dissatisfied linguists whom you asked to reduce their usual rate.

Yana Pukh

Project Coordinator

9 min read

30 May 2019

CLIENTS

Free translation: how to make your client happy and avoid problems