Adding Comment Feature for Translation Proposals

Created on 13 December 2023, about 1 year ago
Updated 1 March 2024, 10 months ago

Problem/Motivation

Currently, translators lack the ability to add comments to their translation proposals. This limitation hinders the communication between translators and validators. Translators often need to explain their choice of words, especially when translating complex or ambiguous terms. For example, terms like "linkset endpoint" may have no established translation, leading to uncertainty in the translation process. The absence of a feature to add explanatory comments or discuss translation doubts makes it challenging to achieve the best possible translation quality.

Proposed resolution

Introduce a comment feature in the Localization server. This feature would enable translators to:

  1. Explain their translation choices, providing context and reasoning for the selected terms.
  2. Share doubts and possible alternatives, allowing validators to understand the translator's thought process and challenges.
  3. Suggest improvements to existing translations for consistency, accuracy, or adaptation to evolving language use.

This feature would facilitate better collaboration and understanding between translators and validators, leading to higher quality translations.

User interface changes

  1. A comment field should be added to the translation proposal submission form.
  2. Translators should be able to view and edit their comments before and after submitting a translation proposal.
  3. Validators should be able to view these comments easily when reviewing translation proposals.

An optional notification system could be implemented to alert validators about new comments on the translations they are reviewing.
These changes aim to enhance the usability of the Localization server and foster a more collaborative and effective translation process.

Feature request
Status

Active

Version

3.0

Component

User interface

Created by

🇫🇷France vmaucorps

Live updates comments and jobs are added and updated live.
Sign in to follow issues

Comments & Activities

  • Issue created by @vmaucorps
  • 🇫🇷France fmb Perpinyà, Catalonia, EU

    Thanks @vmaucorps. I think the first step here would be for the UX team to explore how this could be dealt with in terms of UX design.

  • After discussing it at a localize meeting, I looked into the matter and here are my proposals.

    To be able to easily integrate interaction on suggestions without overloading the translation list page too much, I would move the suggestion creation input to a modal and replace this input in the list page with a button that opens the modal:

    In the modal, I recall the original sentence to be translated, as well as the list of translation suggestions already made and which can be used when writing (in an accordion to take up less space). I then add an input where the suggestion can be made and a second one below if the author wants to leave a comment.

    Once the suggestion has been added, a "Comment this suggestion" link will appear in the list below the suggestion. If the author added an additional comment when creating the suggestion, this will count as the first comment in the counter next to the link in the list.

    When you click on this link, a new modal opens with a reminder of the string to be translated, the suggested translation, any additional comments from the author and the comment feed.

    Finally, when the author of the suggestion opens the interaction modal, they can modify their suggestion and add a new comment to mention their changes.

    What do you think about this suggestion of UX flow?

  • 🇫🇷France fmb Perpinyà, Catalonia, EU

    Thanks Alexiane, we need to take some time during our weekly meetings (once we are done with migrations, and a staging instance is finally available) to talk about about this!

Production build 0.71.5 2024