Balanced localization: how much is appropriate to adapt?

Situation

Concent, Inc: a web and print design agency in Tokyo which routinely sends representatives to international conferences, but whose client base is primarily Japanese. This dynamic created the need for a professional face to English-speaking colleagues, while simultaneously acknowledging our limited capacity for English-based work. The existing English site consisted of one page that bore no similarity to the rest of the site.

The original English page

Approach

We chose to adapt a subset of the Japanese content for presentation to an English audience. Enough to give an accurate sense of Concent’s work, balanced with a manageable workflow for a limited maintenance schedule.

Solution

I worked with Concent’s president and the head of PR to select high-level portions of the site to adapt. Translating company overview information, nutshell descriptions of select projects, and summaries of Concent-led events, detail pages were left in Japanese.

Redesigned English site aligned with Japanese content and design