The problem
Translating a website is the easy part. Arabic reads right to left, so every layout, icon, arrow and animation has to mirror. Prices, dates and phone numbers still read left to right, often in the middle of an Arabic sentence. Arabic script needs larger type to stay legible on a phone, and fonts that don’t slow the page down. And the back-office systems behind the site often don’t store Arabic at all.
Then there’s everything around the language: currencies, tax rules, time zones and payment methods that differ in every country. A “flip the stylesheet” approach gives customers a site that looks almost right and feels foreign, and in a new market that’s the first impression.
VOX Cinemas: eight countries, two languages, one platform
We have built and run VOX Cinemas’ website and apps since 2015, growing with VOX from 150 to 600+ screens across eight countries:
- UAE, Oman and Lebanon (2016), Bahrain, Egypt and Qatar (2017), Kuwait (2018) and Saudi Arabia (2019), all still live
- Arabic added in May 2018, so the website and the iOS, Android and Huawei apps run in full Arabic and English, with the same features in both
- one platform handling different currencies, tax rules and time zones in a single booking flow
- the expansion into Saudi Arabia, when cinemas reopened there after 35 years
The result: +65% online transaction revenue, on a platform that adds a country without a rebuild.
Red Sea International Film Festival
For the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, the first major international film festival in Saudi Arabia, we built a platform that is natively bilingual in Arabic and English for filmgoers, industry buyers, filmmakers and press:
- full right-to-left architecture and localised content
- the Red Sea Souk project market, the Red Sea Fund and Red Sea Labs submission portals, and accreditation, all in both languages
- stable through gala ticket releases and live award announcements, for 30,000+ filmgoers, 138 films from 67 countries
How we do it
- A right-to-left engine, not a mirror. We handle bi-directional text properly: an Arabic sentence with an English film title and a price in it should read naturally, not jumble.
- Layout built for both directions. Margins, padding, icons and arrows are written so they flip with the text direction, and we decide case by case what should mirror and what shouldn’t (a play button doesn’t).
- Arabic typography that stays fast. Arabic text is set larger to stay legible, and fonts are delivered so they don’t slow the page.
- Data the back office can’t hold. Where a ticketing system has no Arabic, our middleware adds the translated content on import and caches it by language, so the customer never sees the gap.
- Testing in both languages. Every feature is tested in Arabic and English, on web and in the apps, by testers who read both. Parity is a release criterion, not a nice-to-have.
- The rest of localisation. Currencies, tax, time zones and local payment methods such as Mada, KNET and OmanNet. See Payments.
We’ve written up what we learned in Developing in Arabic.
Beyond Arabic
The same approach works for any language and any right-to-left script, such as Hebrew, Persian or Urdu, and for any business expanding into new countries: one platform, with each market’s language, currency and rules handled properly. Cineworld’s platform served the UK in pounds and Ireland in euros from the same code.
Related
- Services: Software Development, Mobile App Development, Vista Cinema Integrators
- Solutions: Payments, Replatforming and legacy migration
- Case studies: VOX Cinemas, Red Sea International Film Festival
- Blog: Developing in Arabic
Frequently asked questions
Can you add Arabic to our existing website or app?
Yes. VOX’s platform added full Arabic support in May 2018, alongside the existing English, on the live website and apps. It needs changes to layout, typography, content and data, not just translation, so we plan it as a project.
Our ticketing system doesn’t support Arabic. Is that a problem?
No. Our middleware stores the Arabic content alongside the back-office data and serves it by language, so the customer sees a complete Arabic site.
Do you test in both languages?
Yes. Every feature is tested in Arabic and English, on the website and in the apps, before it’s released.
