Podcast · 46 min

Ranjeet Pratap Singh on the story and culture of Pratilipi

Siddhartha Ahluwalia · The Neon Show Free Intermediate India

Pratilipi built India's largest vernacular storytelling platform across a dozen languages, and its founder walks through what that actually took. You hear how the vernacular experience became the main product rather than a side feature, which is exactly the mindset shift your question points at. A founder to founder account, not a design theory lecture.

  • For many Indian products the local language experience is the core, not an add on
  • Different language communities behave differently, do not assume one design fits all
  • Serving low end devices and networks shapes the product as much as language
Open on neon.fund ↗

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 →