In 2018, Deliveroo launched in Kuwait.
Although Deliveroo was already live in Dubai, research showed that in order the have an impact as a brand, we'd need to support the app in Arabic. This wasn't really a requirement for Dubai given the high numbers of expats living there and they overall level of English.
As head of content design and localisation, I sourced freelance translators and reviewers, organised our content into a logical structure and agreed deadlines depending on priority.
I worked closely with the translators and reviewers to communicate tone of voice, style decisions and create working guidelines and glossaries for consistency.
Aside from the obvious difference of being a right to left language, there were also a lot of cultural things to consider. Arabic can be written in an extremely formal way, and it's not uncommon for businesses to use this kind of tone when speaking to customers. However, alongside Deliveroo's brand colours and typeface, it would have felt very out of place. We had a lot of discussions to make sure we weren't going to far with the casual style, which could come across as trying too hard to be one of the cool kids.
Culturally, we had to localise images and places where we mention drinks, pork items or anything alcohol related in keeping with the laws and culture of Kuwait.
I used our standard glossary or terms, and then added another layer of detail including verbs and commonly used phrases to ensure consistency. Once this was translated, the freelancers were able to start translating.
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