What is the most authoritative, comprehensive way to classify and subdivide fields of translation? Thread poster: Fredrik Pettersson
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I am about to build a web site for my translation business, and wonder if anyone knows how to classify and subdivide fields of translation? Some very clear system of classification of fields of translation, which makes it clear for the customer at first sight the overall tree-structure of the fields of translation.
For instance, Business & commerce, Finance and economy, Technology, etc., and then different subfields. Lowest in the hierarchy: examples of types of documents.
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 10:39
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| Things to take into account | Aug 19, 2009 |
Fredrik Pettersson wrote:
Some very clear system of classification of fields of translation, which makes it clear for the customer at first sight the overall tree-structure of the fields of translation.
Authoritativity isn't important here. Nor is comprehensivity. For your purpose, what you need is a system that will enable customers to select the most appropriate field within seconds in a way that is most useful to you. Remember, customers can have a weird way of selecting an "appropriate" category. I used to edit an online directory with categories in it, and it was interesting to see that although people usually genuinely try to select the right category, their selection was often incorrect.
So I would suggest a system that is flexible -- if the client chooses the wrong category, it aint the end of the world. I suggest very few categories -- say, not more than twenty. Also, do not present the categories to the client in a drop-down list that shows only a few at a time, or with a user-unfriendly scroll bar. Make it as easy for the client as possible to get a general (instant) overview of all categories before making his selection. Another idea is to have a field called "other" and have the client fill in what he regards as the ideal label for the field of his file (you can then use this information over time to refine your list of categories.
| | | | Fredrik Pettersson
Hong Kong
Local time: 10:39
Member (2009)
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | What about to have 9 main fields, 1 general field, and your suggested "fill in your own field"? | Aug 19, 2009 |
Thank you very much for your advices Samuel, it really made me see much clearer what we need to consider when building our web site, and define the different fields that we translate in.
I found a very clear way of defining 9 fields of translation, with definitions for each field. To this, we could add a general category, and your suggested "Fill in your own fields"
Also, we could list the different kinds of documents that belong to each field of translation, yet being ... See more Thank you very much for your advices Samuel, it really made me see much clearer what we need to consider when building our web site, and define the different fields that we translate in.
I found a very clear way of defining 9 fields of translation, with definitions for each field. To this, we could add a general category, and your suggested "Fill in your own fields"
Also, we could list the different kinds of documents that belong to each field of translation, yet being flexible and place one document in several fields of translation if needed. ▲ Collapse
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