You should try to follow the i18n and l10n pointers provided by the look and feel guidelines for the UI library you're using, or platform you're delivering to. They often contain hints on how to avoid cultural issues, and may even contain icon libraries that have had extensive testing for such potential banana skins.
I guess the most important thing is designing your application with i18n in mind from the ground up, so that your UI can be resized depending on the translated text; mnemonics are appropriate for different languages; labels are to the left for latin languages, but on the right for Hebrew and Arabic, etc, etc.
Designing with i18n and l10n in mind means that shipping your product to a location with a different culture, language or currency will not require a re-write, or a different version, just different resources.
Generally speaking, I believe you'll run into more problems with graphics and icons that you will with text (apart from embarrassing translations) simply because people identify more strongly with symbols than particular passages of text.
The idiom to use a big (green) checkmark symbol to mean OK/Yes/Correct is somewhat confusing in Sweden, where the checkmark is typically used to mean "wrong". I.e. when grading tests in school, a teacher will often use a capital R (from the Swedish word for "Right") for a correct answer, and a checkmark ("bock" in Swedish) for "wrong".
I find this issue interesting not only because I'm in the affected group (I'm Swedish), but also because it highlights that these kinds of issues can appear where you might not expect them to. Sweden is a generic Western culture, you might assume that usage of these kinds of symbols should be the same.
I have to use an online database tool that has some user settings that can be toggled on and off. On is indicated by a green cross (×), Off is indicated by a red circle (○).
In Japan this is confusing since Off (NG, stop, closed) in general would be indicated by a cross (× : batsu) and On (ok, open) by a circle (○ : maru). Adding to that the green red color combination makes things very confusing.
There is a good reason why the Windows resources (and not only) contain more than just strings. A lot of elements should be considered localizable: - colors - images (including icons, toolbars, etc.) - sounds - font and font sizes - alignment - control flags and attributes (think UI mirroring for Arabic & Hebrew) - dialog sizes - etc.
This way all most of the problems can be addressed by the localizers, without any code changes.
For dialogs resizing should either be done by the localizers (to leaving extra space is not necessary), or should use auto-layout (available in frameworks like Java, .NET, Flex, wxWidgets, Qt, etc.)
You will not be able to identify all issues on your own. Specialists in UI/cultures will cost you lots of money.
Design first for you primary region and then discover and fix (if you can) issues one by one.
/* Here was my opinion on the religious issues as applied to software design. Removed as the thread starter did not like it. */
Well these issues begin to play role when you grow to the big/international/corporate level. Until that happens better not bother. They call it "premature optimization".
The German language, you're right, content/markup ratio is noticeably lower when compared to English. Another difference is that the words tend to be very long which means not only text area will be longer, but you'll likely run into problems when words expand out of the container and not wrap.
How would you like that one: Kesselsteinentfernungsmittelherstellungsbetrieb ?
Honestly, you won't be able do design it that way as to please everyone. World cultures are in many way contradictory. As soon as you reached certain expansion level, you'll inevitably become a rip-off target for lots of jerk around the world who find the UI and colors of your application "offensive".
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您应该尝试遵循您正在使用的 UI 库或您要交付到的平台的外观指南提供的 i18n 和 l10n 指针。 它们通常包含有关如何避免文化问题的提示，甚至可能包含对此类潜在香蕉皮进行了广泛测试的图标库。
我想最重要的事情是从头开始设计你的应用程序时考虑到 i18n，这样你的 UI 就可以根据翻译的文本调整大小； 助记符适用于不同的语言； 拉丁语语言的标签位于左侧，希伯来语和阿拉伯语等的标签位于右侧。
设计时考虑到国际化和本地化意味着将您的产品运送到具有不同文化、语言或货币的地点将不需要重新设计。 -write，或者不同的版本，只是不同的资源。
一般来说，我相信您在处理图形和图标时会遇到比文本更多的问题（除了令人尴尬的翻译），这仅仅是因为人们对符号的识别比对特定文本段落的识别更强烈。
You should try to follow the i18n and l10n pointers provided by the look and feel guidelines for the UI library you're using, or platform you're delivering to. They often contain hints on how to avoid cultural issues, and may even contain icon libraries that have had extensive testing for such potential banana skins.
I guess the most important thing is designing your application with i18n in mind from the ground up, so that your UI can be resized depending on the translated text; mnemonics are appropriate for different languages; labels are to the left for latin languages, but on the right for Hebrew and Arabic, etc, etc.
Designing with i18n and l10n in mind means that shipping your product to a location with a different culture, language or currency will not require a re-write, or a different version, just different resources.
Generally speaking, I believe you'll run into more problems with graphics and icons that you will with text (apart from embarrassing translations) simply because people identify more strongly with symbols than particular passages of text.
在瑞典，使用大（绿色）复选标记符号来表示“确定”/“是”/“正确”的习惯用法有些令人困惑，因为在瑞典，复选标记通常用来表示“错误”。 例如，在学校对考试进行评分时，老师通常会使用大写 R（来自瑞典语“正确”一词）作为正确答案，并使用复选标记（“bock"（瑞典语）表示“错误”。
我发现这个问题很有趣，不仅因为我属于受影响的群体（我是瑞典人），还因为它强调了此类问题可能会出现在您意想不到的地方。 瑞典是一种通用的西方文化，您可能会认为这些符号的用法应该是相同的。
The idiom to use a big (green) checkmark symbol to mean OK/Yes/Correct is somewhat confusing in Sweden, where the checkmark is typically used to mean "wrong". I.e. when grading tests in school, a teacher will often use a capital R (from the Swedish word for "Right") for a correct answer, and a checkmark ("bock" in Swedish) for "wrong".
I find this issue interesting not only because I'm in the affected group (I'm Swedish), but also because it highlights that these kinds of issues can appear where you might not expect them to. Sweden is a generic Western culture, you might assume that usage of these kinds of symbols should be the same.
日本的另一个是/否示例
我必须使用在线数据库工具，该工具具有一些可以打开和关闭的用户设置。 开启由绿色十字(×)表示，关闭由红色圆圈(○)表示。
在日本，这很令人困惑，因为“关”（NG、停止、关闭）通常用十字（×：batsu）表示，“开”（ok、打开）用圆圈（○：maru）表示。
再加上绿红的颜色组合让事情变得非常混乱。
Another Yes/No example for Japan
I have to use an online database tool that has some user settings that can be toggled on and off. On is indicated by a green cross (×), Off is indicated by a red circle (○).
In Japan this is confusing since Off (NG, stop, closed) in general would be indicated by a cross (× : batsu) and On (ok, open) by a circle (○ : maru).
Adding to that the green red color combination makes things very confusing.
Windows 资源（不仅如此）不仅仅包含字符串，这是有充分理由的。
许多元素应该被认为是可本地化的：
- 颜色
- 图像（包括图标、工具栏等）
- 声音
- 字体和字体大小
- 结盟
- 控制标志和属性（想想阿拉伯语和希伯来语的 UI 镜像）
- 对话框大小
- 等等。
这样，本地化人员就可以解决所有大多数问题，而无需更改任何代码。
对于对话框，调整大小应该由本地化程序完成（不需要留出额外的空间），或者应该使用自动布局（在 Java、.NET、Flex、wxWidgets、Qt 等框架中可用）
。好读：http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal /bb688120.aspx
There is a good reason why the Windows resources (and not only) contain more than just strings.
A lot of elements should be considered localizable:
- colors
- images (including icons, toolbars, etc.)
- sounds
- font and font sizes
- alignment
- control flags and attributes (think UI mirroring for Arabic & Hebrew)
- dialog sizes
- etc.
This way all most of the problems can be addressed by the localizers, without any code changes.
For dialogs resizing should either be done by the localizers (to leaving extra space is not necessary), or should use auto-layout (available in frameworks like Java, .NET, Flex, wxWidgets, Qt, etc.)
This might also be a good read: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb688120.aspx
您将无法独自识别所有问题。
UI/文化方面的专家会花费你很多钱。
首先为您的主要区域进行设计，然后一一发现并解决（如果可以的话）问题。
/* 这是我对应用于软件设计的宗教问题的看法。 由于线程发起者不喜欢它而被删除。 */
当你成长到大/国际/公司水平时，这些问题开始发挥作用。 在那之前最好不要打扰。 他们称之为“过早优化”。
德语，你是对的，与英语相比，德语的内容/标记率明显较低。 另一个区别是单词往往很长，这意味着不仅文本区域会更长，而且当单词从容器中展开而不是换行时，您可能会遇到问题。
您想要这样一个：Kesselsteinentfernungsmittelherstellungsbetrieb 吗？
老实说，你无法以取悦所有人的方式设计它。 世界文化在很多方面都是矛盾的。 一旦达到一定的扩展级别，您将不可避免地成为世界各地许多混蛋的敲诈目标，他们发现您的应用程序的 UI 和颜色“令人反感”。
You will not be able to identify all issues on your own.
Specialists in UI/cultures will cost you lots of money.
Design first for you primary region and then discover and fix (if you can) issues one by one.
/* Here was my opinion on the religious issues as applied to software design. Removed as the thread starter did not like it. */
Well these issues begin to play role when you grow to the big/international/corporate level. Until that happens better not bother. They call it "premature optimization".
The German language, you're right, content/markup ratio is noticeably lower when compared to English. Another difference is that the words tend to be very long which means not only text area will be longer, but you'll likely run into problems when words expand out of the container and not wrap.
How would you like that one: Kesselsteinentfernungsmittelherstellungsbetrieb ?
Honestly, you won't be able do design it that way as to please everyone. World cultures are in many way contradictory. As soon as you reached certain expansion level, you'll inevitably become a rip-off target for lots of jerk around the world who find the UI and colors of your application "offensive".