The browser language can largely solve the user experience of multilingual sites, since we can resort to configuring automatic redirection rules.
However, it will always be necessary to use a language selector that allows you to switch between the different languages in which you can browse our site.
Let's imagine that we are working on a website in Spanish and English and we establish the following rules:
If your browser language is Spanish, it will redirect to the Spanish site.
If your browser language is English, it will redirect to the English site.
If the browser language is another, we will resort to our old friend Vilfredo Paretto (80/20) and redirect to the English site, since “comparing with our web analytics tool” we assume that it is the language most used by visitors code phone number philippines whose languages are neither Spanish nor English.
And now, let's think about a use case: Americo Agostini lands on our website.
In addition to Italian, he is fluent in Spanish, but he understands absolutely no English.
In what language will our website be displayed?
Following the established rules, you will access the site in English and our dear Americo will not understand anything.
For this reason, one of the key elements when designing a multilingual site is, whether we like it or not, the language selector that will allow us to change the language in which the contents of a website are displayed.
When considering solutions for a language selector we must take into account:
Standardizations
If we are talking about a selector, whatever solution we choose, we cannot forget in its design the most standardized element in a drop-down menu: the inverted triangle.
Paying attention to detail is important in any design exercise and the most basic elements are sometimes the main victims.
UX design at Zara - Language selection button example
Access to the site
Whenever a user accesses a multilingual site for the first time, it is interesting to ask them from which country they are visiting and the language in which they prefer to view the content.
In this way, the user will be the one to select his/her preference and there will be no room for any type of error.