Designing for the Arabic Market: A Designer's Perspective on Cross-Cultural Design

The differences struck me as I sat on the plane, browsing through the Arabic interface of the in-flight entertainment system. It was vastly different from the English one I was used to. I made some notes to share with fellow designers and decision-makers who work on digital products for the Arabic market. Here they are:

• Mirror image layouts are not enough: Since Arabic is written right-to-left (RTL), some designers might believe that simply mirroring everything addresses all design challenges. However, this isn’t entirely true. While mirroring can be a good starting point, it is not always sufficient. For instance, progress bars in video or music players still run from left to right, even in Arabic interfaces. Additionally, simply mirroring the entire web layout without paying attention to the details can be as ineffective as using free web translation apps for complex documents – it’s only partially effective.
• Arabic numerals: It’s interesting to note that despite Arabic being an RTL language, Arabic numerals are written left to right, just like in the Latin alphabet. This is an important consideration in design, ensuring that numbers are presented in a way that makes sense.
• Translation beyond text: Translating into Arabic is just the beginning of creating an Arabic interface. There are considerations to be made in Arabic typography. For instance, it’s advisable to increase leading because Arabic characters, with their intricate symbols and strokes, need more space. This adjustment helps maintain readability and visual harmony. Arabic, like any popular language, can be written in a variety of fonts, offering a fun playground for designers.
• Contextual translations: Direct word-for-word translations from English to Arabic often fall short and typically need more descriptive phrases. This is crucial for elements like ‘Helper Text’ in form validations, where clarity and relevance in Arabic are key. For example, when handling error messages in forms, it’s important to account for the larger character count often required for system messages in Arabic, compared to English or other Latin-based languages
• Font size considerations: Arabic script generally requires a larger font size than the Latin alphabet for readability, considering the complexity of Arabic characters.
• Icons and directionality: In an RTL layout, some icons also need to be reversed to align with the natural reading and navigation flow of Arabic users. Icons like chat clouds should be evaluated and flipped if necessary, though there are exceptions like the play button triangle that maintain the same orientation.

Remember, designing for Arabic clients isn’t just about translating and mirroring content; it’s about adapting the design to respect and accommodate the linguistic and cultural nuances of the Arabic language and its users. So while general UX rules are the same for Arabic, German, or Polish design, there’s plenty of tiny differences and details to see. And personally, I’m super excited to get to know more about it!