Right-to-Left, Left-to-Right: Rethinking Multilingual Design
summary
Builds an Arabic‑first MOOC platform with videos, quizzes and RTL UI patterns, reports that English‑centric tooling excludes ~75% of people and ~2 billion RTL readers, and documents specific failures (letters breaking, mirrored arrows flipping actions, progress bars reversing meaning). Automates localization with a new generator GSQ that pushes docs to Crowdin and pulls translated strings back via GitHub workflows, reduces manual translation work, and ships a localized platform already used by regional communities.
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chapters (18)
- 0:00Introduction and speakers
- 1:08Right-to-left reading experience
- 2:33Early web and Latin script limitations
- 4:18Arabic script challenges online
- 6:29Mental model of RTL users
- 7:55Open science in the Arab region
- 8:15Designing RTL platform UI
- 10:03Entity types in RTL design
- 11:32Emojis and RTL meaning
- 12:35Navigation and RTL actions
- 14:44RTL design consistency
- 15:26Introducing GS qu tool
- 16:52GS qu translation workflow
- 19:03GS qu language support
- 20:30Language power and agency
- 21:55Q&A on RTL resources
- 22:59Q&A on RTL in print media
- 24:48Q&A on project challenges
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