Google Translate
I've researched Google Translate as it's the most prominent and used translation application/website with 500 million users daily as of May 2017. Google Translate is a translation machine serviced developed by Google. It supports 100 languages around the world at various levels. In addition to text, it can also translate: speech, images, sites, or real-time video. It can also pronounce translated text for most of the languages, highlight certain words/phrases and acts as a dictionary for single-word input. Not only that, but if can also 'Detect Language' when an unknown text is inputted it can be automatically identified. Website URL's can also be inputted where Google translate will create a hyperlink to a machine translation of the website. Users can also save words and phrases they've translated in a 'phrasebook' which is quite helpful if they'd like to use it later.
How it works?
Google Translate works by looking through millions of translated documents in which the machine will decide on the best translation of the word/phrase/sentence; not on traditional rule-based analysis - (*statistical machine translation). However, because the translations are based on intelligent guessing some languages produce better translations than others e.g. English to any other EU language works the best, because of the large amount of EU transcripts translated. On the other hand, English to Chinese (or other languages that uses characters instead of Latin characters) vary as the languages aren't edited as sentences but with characters, therefore changing a character form will change the whole meaning of the word, however Google Translate isn't able to recognise this. In addition, for large texts etc. the translations are grammatically inaccurate and doesn't make sense in general therefore may not be as useful for larger texts like essays etc.
Benefits
- Good for single word or short phrases translations
- Additional features are helpful e.g. speech feature, website translation, wide range of languages (100+) therefore can be used worldwide
- can be used on any phone models e.g. Android or iOS.
- Multiple UI types e.g. App or website
Disadvantages
- Because it's based on algorithms and patterns it can produce grammatically inaccurate translations
- Only works best for English to EU languages.
- In general wrong translations.
Instead of websites I also decided to research applications which work in similar ways to the application that I am intending to create.
Scan&Translate
How it works?
Just like its name, Scan&Translate will let the users Scan or take a picture of a word/phrase/sentence in the application. As well as this it also allows the users to type in and speak the word/phrase or sentence that they want to translate. I found that when I opened the app, it prompt to ask me if I want the app to access my camera to take photos which I thought was quite redundant as I feel like it should already give access to use your camera in the first place anyways. Also, instead of setting a default language it asked you if it can access your location in order to locate the local language spoken, which I thought was quite clever as this means that you don't have to keep changing the language that you want to translate as it automatically does it for you. This is particularly helpful for tourists as they often may move from country to country therefore it may become a hassle to keep changing the language option on the app. I tried to translate something, however, for some reason it didn't actually translate as you had to buy the application first before fully being able to use all of its features, which was quite disappointing as this means that it may not be accessible to people on a low budget or just couldn't afford to buy the app. Another thing that annoyed me was the amount of adverts that kept popping up as I was trying to use the app. There were so many ads that it felt like I was using an app about adverts; it became really frustrating and made me not use the app anymore, which may be their marketing strategy in order for the users to buy the application to use all the features and avoid the ads.
Scan&Translate
How it works?
Just like its name, Scan&Translate will let the users Scan or take a picture of a word/phrase/sentence in the application. As well as this it also allows the users to type in and speak the word/phrase or sentence that they want to translate. I found that when I opened the app, it prompt to ask me if I want the app to access my camera to take photos which I thought was quite redundant as I feel like it should already give access to use your camera in the first place anyways. Also, instead of setting a default language it asked you if it can access your location in order to locate the local language spoken, which I thought was quite clever as this means that you don't have to keep changing the language that you want to translate as it automatically does it for you. This is particularly helpful for tourists as they often may move from country to country therefore it may become a hassle to keep changing the language option on the app. I tried to translate something, however, for some reason it didn't actually translate as you had to buy the application first before fully being able to use all of its features, which was quite disappointing as this means that it may not be accessible to people on a low budget or just couldn't afford to buy the app. Another thing that annoyed me was the amount of adverts that kept popping up as I was trying to use the app. There were so many ads that it felt like I was using an app about adverts; it became really frustrating and made me not use the app anymore, which may be their marketing strategy in order for the users to buy the application to use all the features and avoid the ads.
Benefits
- Very visual (flags of countries used)
- Geolocating feature is clever and will speed up language selection process
Disadvantages
- Actually have to buy the app to use all the features.
- Too many adverts
Translate Now
How it works?
This application was the best out of the three that I've tried and I had a good UX whilst navigating through the app program. The aesthetic of the app itself is very simple and minimal whilst still including minimal illustrations to indicate certain parts of the application to navigate the users through. I found the 'Conversation' option to be quite interesting as it lets you speak through which can then be translated to the language of your choice. I could imagine this option to be used, when a tourist may ask something on the street from a local, which is so much faster than typing out simple sentences or finding it through a translation book. Having the conversation option will make the questioning quicker and more efficient. It also has a 'History' option showing you all the translations that you've done, however, they can be a bit confusing and I feel like it isn't really that useful as a 'Save' button could be much more useful making it kind of redundant. I also has modes for taking a picture and speaking through the microphone, giving the user other methods of access of the app according to their convenience. Another thing is the 'Offline Mode' where you can still use the app with the languages that you've downloaded, however it's not available to all the languages and not as global. The only thing is, you also had to be subscribed and pay for the app to keep using it, therefore it may put off some users from using it (although it is free for 3 days).
Benefits
- Simple minimal interface that doesn't overwhelm the users
- Very easy to navigate
- Less adverts
- Good details like 'Voice Gender' and 'Speech Speed'.
Disadvantages
- Have to be a paid subscription
- Offline Mode not as global
Thoughts & Reflection:
Overall, researching through these applications and website I've found they all mostly have the same features which help the user get the information they'd like to obtain. I think with my application some of the features will also be quite similar but at the same time I don't want to have it identical or the same as these apps as my main point is giving the context and use of the translation fro the users to use in everyday life. Therefore, I feel like my application will have extra add on features in which the translations will be highlighted better and give informed and detailed information to the users in which they can understand and learn from in order for my application to be effective and successful. In addition, I didn't really like how the apps where a subscription thing as i feel like it would restrict the amount of people that use it. For my application, I'd most likely want it to be free- or at the least be paid but not subscribed to. The reason being, I don't want users to just use it for free trials and delete it, but rather have it with them for a long time as I believe it can be useful wherever they may go, therefore it'll beneficial for them and for me as the designer.
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