What is the optimum way to display language selection?

Question

When it comes to language selection there are several approaches:

1. all langs in English
2. all langs in their own language - this can put you in a difficult situation when you want to switch to your language but you don't know what
3. each language in its own language
4. lang in current language (lang in its own language) - this is the most complete but is hard to implement and in addition to the translation effort you have to assure that you have enough space to display all strings and this is not always possible.

I think I prefer #3 because it is easier to implement than #4 and the only disadvantage is that you may need to know the target language name in its own language.

Which one are you currently using and what kind of sorting do you use for this list?

language selection dialog http://blog.i18n.ro/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/language_selection_dual.png

Answer 1

It depends on what you're doing.

If this is a way to switch the application/website (not sure which you're doing) to a different language, I would prefer #3 (each language in its own language). I have no idea how to sort the list. :-) I'd probably punt and sort it mostly by the language code, but with the most popular languages I know are being used by my users near the top. If you speak an obscure dialect of a little-used language, you're going to be used to hunting for it in lists. :-)

If it's just to indicate (say) what language(s) you speak or what-have-you and the overall UI is going to remain in English regardless, I'd go with #4 where possible or #1 where not.

Answer 2

• lang in English (lang in its own language)

Answer 3

In my opinion, the emerging standard that works well on responsive websites is to use some variation of a chinese-latin-icon that opens a menu listing the languages in their native script.

..but as long as you aren't using flags, or a labeleled drop-down that is only labeled in the current language (and therefore hard to find by somebody that doesn't read it) you are good.

The UN uses a big list, but then when the site is made small they do the labelled menu thing. So, good when big, confusing when small.

Google Translation Toolkit uses the chinese-latin-icon menu pattern in the footer. I think it works, but it's hard to find in the footer.

You should consider posting this question in the UX stack exchange as well. You might get some more perspectives.

Answer 4

I'd prefer #1, but you should provide the flag of each country (as a picture). Something visual is always easier to recognize than text (especially if the person doesn't speak English).