How Supporting Right-to-Left Can Expose Your Bad UX

Explore the challenges and benefits of supporting Right-to-Left languages in user interfaces through this 39-minute conference talk from Strange Loop. Discover how accommodating languages like Arabic and Hebrew can expose underlying UX issues and lead to improved interfaces for all users. Learn about the complexities of the Unicode BiDi algorithm, internationalization best practices, and common pitfalls in supporting bidirectional text. Gain insights from real-world examples of Wikipedia's efforts to create inclusive interfaces, including handling numbers, user-generated content, and overall layout design. Understand how addressing Right-to-Left support can strengthen code, enhance user experience, and make software more accessible globally. Benefit from the speaker's expertise as a physicist-turned-software engineer at the Wikimedia Foundation, specializing in Right-to-Left language support and internationalization.

Introduction
Wikipedia
Mental model
Wikipedia righttoleft
Bidirectional algorithm
Internationalization
Examples
Numbers
Interface
Usergenerated content
Helpful tools
Bonus