Article · 15 min read

Building Airbnb's Internationalization Platform

Hua Zheng · The Airbnb Tech Blog Free Advanced

When you are ready to think about the engineering, this shows how a product serving 62 languages keeps text out of the code and manages translation at scale. The key lesson is early and cheap: store strings outside your codebase from day one so adding a language is not a rewrite. Read it for the architecture instincts even if your app is far smaller.

  • Keep all user facing strings out of the code, in a central store
  • Prioritize translating the most viewed text first to spend effort where it counts
  • Plan for translation as an ongoing pipeline, not a one time task
Open on medium.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I design an app that works well for users who aren't fluent in English and may switch languages?

Read with it

  1. This is Google's own field research on building for people coming online in markets like India, and it names the exact... Google Design Article · ~12 min read Connectivity, Culture, and Credit: Designing for the Next Billion Users Google Design (Next Billion Users team)
  2. This is the plain, research backed baseline for the whole question: it draws the line between translating an interface and... Nielsen Norman Group Article · About a 12 minute read Modify Your Design for Global Audiences: Crosscultural UX Design Feifei Liu
  3. If any of your users read Urdu, Arabic, or another right to left script, your whole layout may need to mirror, and this is the... Material Design 3 Article · 10 min read Bidirectionality and RTL Google Material Design
  4. A practical designer facing walkthrough of building interfaces that survive translation, including how languages fall into... Material Design 3 Article · 12 min read Principles and Techniques for Effective Localization Google Material Design
  5. Your short answer says never bury the language switch, and this is the definitive piece on getting that one control right. It... Smashing Magazine Article · 20 min read Designing A Perfect Language Selector UX Vitaly Friedman
  6. A tighter, pattern focused companion to the language selector deep dive, good when you just want the checklist. It covers... Smart Interface Design Patterns Article · 10 min read Language Selector UX (Smart Interface Design Patterns) Vitaly Friedman
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →