Travelling in a foreign country can be difficult, especially if you don’t speak the local language. Thankfully, translation technology has come a long way and it’s no problem to find your way around with just a smartphone. However, translation apps often have a clunky user interface and are more complicated than the average traveller needs them to be.
Simplifying the Translation Experience
My goal in designing Lango was to make it as easy as possible to get your message to another person. Usage is simple: Open the app, say what you want translated, and the phone speaks it in the appropriate language.
Accomplishing this required a few changes from the standard translation apps. First, upon opening, the app uses the phone’s GPS to figure out where the user is and what language is appropriate. It then uses speech recognition to input the translation material, translates it, and then speaks the translated material.
A Clear and Friendly Interface
One of the most important things in designing the Lango interface was to make it clear to the user what the app was doing. As it locates the user, the map in the background zooms in and highlights the country it thinks the user is in. Lango then asks the user if this was correct, and the answer can either be spoken or tapped.
When it comes time to translate, simply press the microphone button, speak, and the phone translates and speaks as soon as it is ready.
