Choosing a Great Translator for Technical Explainers

Absolute Translations looks into how to choose the most appropriate translator for your technical explainer videos and instructional content

Video explainers and instructional guides are a great resource for businesses engaged in sectors such as logistics, production and manufacturing. They provide useful information for consumers and clients, enhance customer experiences, and present a credible, knowledgeable brand.

However, any company producing technical explainers for a cross-border or international demographic must ensure their written and audio translations are of the highest quality.

The key objective is to deliver education and insights that customers can completely understand without needing to re-read, re-listen, or look elsewhere for information about a product, service, connection or integration.

Absolute Translations, a long-established certified translation specialist with expert translators focusing on professional translations for business, legal, medical, technical, educational and financial content, shares some tips to ensure your translation provider has the appropriate skill and knowledge.

What Should a Business Expect From a Technical Translation Project?

When introducing a brand to any new market or circulating technical guides to customers in several countries, the message must be direct, clear and accurate, without poor quality translations or errors that cause frustration or create an environment where a reader finds the advice provided ambiguous.

Technical translation is a high-skill field, where a translator doesn't solely need to have an exceptional level of fluency in both the original and target language but understands:

• The intended audience demographic - selecting phrases and descriptors that communicate the point without appearing inaccessible or overly complex.
• The subject matter and the industry it relates to. Translating technical content without an underlying grasp of the sector commonly leads to incorrect or inappropriate phraseology.
• The tone, style and nuance of the content, ensuring this caters to the expectations and requirements of the reader, respecting cultural differences such as the way a word in one language may not be perceived as having an identical meaning in another.

Even a seemingly minor error can be disastrous across specialised fields, such as pharmaceuticals or medical device manufacturing, resulting in negative reputational damage, legal liability and the incorrect use of a product or service.

How to Choose a Skilled Translator for Technical Translation Work

Finding a translator with a specific breadth of knowledge can be tricky, and the first place to start is creating a specification or a shortlist of your priorities, be that a qualification or certain degree of experience in your sector or an underlying comprehension of the service, product or subject area your translation relates to.

Translation providers with robust quality assurance processes are always preferable, ensuring that more than one translator will review the finished work, giving you the peace of mind that there is no potential for errors to be missed.

Absolute Translations upholds unparalleled quality assurance standards as a dual ISO-certified translation provider that focuses on outstanding quality, irrespective of the complexity, urgency or length of the translation required.

We hold the following ISO accreditations, which we’d recommend you look for when selecting an agency or translation service to work with:

• ISO 9001 – a general quality certification based on audits of quality management principles.
• ISO 17100 – a specific quality mark awarded to translation companies following an audit of their processes, resources, skills and recruitment policies.

A translation provider with this level of certification has proven to have diligent and broad-scope quality assurance processes that result in accurate and effective translations, with businesses inspected periodically to assess whether their internal controls remain suitable.

Why Multi-Factor Quality Assurance Is Essential for Flawless Technical Explainer Translations

Quality is fundamental, ensuring your translations are completed to the requisite level of specificity and professionalism while also hitting other objectives, such as on-time delivery, precise formatting and compliance with any regulatory requirements.

Subject matter knowledge is important since this contributes to technical explainer translations in areas such as manufacturing, automotive and engineering that will appear, to the target reader, to have been written by an established and reputable professional within their niche.

A trusted technical translation services provider should always be happy to explain how their quality control processes work, which includes the initial translation, followed by editing, and finally with proofing – a three-step method provides a higher level of assurance and means that at least two certified and experienced translators review the work.

The finished result should be an explainer that conveys the same messaging and tone as the original content without any missing details, diagrams, annotations or subtitles that would impact the experience of your target audience.

At Absolute Translations, our fantastic team provides native-speaker translation in over 200 languages and dialects, including experts in varied fields with real-world experience, delivering superb comprehension and accuracy across the board.

Project Managing a Technical Translation Project

Project management is the final area to consider when selecting a translator for a technical explainer. While some explainers may be short-form content, instructional guides and step-by-step usage processes, others will comprise product manuals, video guides and assembly tutorials covering a wide range of content and mediums.

Project management acts as an anchor to keep the work progressing to the agreed timeframes and is essential for technical explainers where:

• The content is being translated into multiple languages or in various versions, such as explainers for partner organisations and professionals and explainers for end users and consumers.
• The translation is expected to take several weeks to complete, with a need for a strategic and monitored approach to ensure each deliverable is returned on time and follows the same rigorous quality assessment process.
• The project will include several translators, interpreters or voice-over translators, requiring a project manager to assign tasks, split the project into appropriate subsections and collate the finished work into one cohesive explainer.

Project managers also focus on consistency, reviewing each piece of translation work to ensure the tone and style are uniform and match your requirements.

Well-managed, professional technical explainers can add value to organisations, particularly when engaging with diverse demographics, audiences and user groups, producing high-quality explainers in as many languages and content forms as necessary.

Working through these priorities will ensure the translation team you select will deliver on your expectations and provide translated explainers that represent your business in the right manner.

Read more about Absolute Translations - Absolute Translations Achieves 'Excellent' Trustpilot Review Status With Over 2,000 Ratings 

About Absolute Translations

Absolute Translations understands the importance of quality and reliability and this comes at the forefront of our translation services. Our many years of experience have made it possible for us to work with some of the most talented professional translators as well as leading global brands around the world in more than 200 languages, with business translation services from our London, UK and European offices.

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Source Company: https://www.absolutetranslations.com/