Get Your Language Outta My Face

Arriving at a website to see your language displayed automatically may be a plus for some, but can be a pain in the ass for others.

Imagine this: You speak Portuguese, live in Brazil, and visit a website (such as Microsoft, for example). You load the website and - boom - there is the content, in all its Portuguese-y glory. That worked out well for you, right?

Imagine this: You speak Portuguese and English. You live in Brazil but you are an expatriate and you prefer to read online content in English. Actually, you don’t really speak or read Portuguese, so reading in English is not a preference, but rather, a need.  But, since Microsoft is detecting your browser’s language, your location and/or system settings, you must want Portuguese, right? There is simply NO other logical explanation. So you load up Microsoft’s website, and - boom - there’s a jumbled mess of text that makes no sense to you.

“Ok, no worries” you tell yourself. I’ll just hit the language selector, and we’re off.

Sure, no problem…. If the language selector is easy to find, and where you expect it.

(At the time of this writing, the language selector is in SMALL text in the BOTTOM LEFT section of the website. And it displays the CURRENT page’s language. So if you don’t see / don’t know that “Português” means “Hey, click here to change your language?, you’re screwed).

And what if - what if - you are in a location whose language doesn’t even use your ALPHABET?!?  You are so screwed.

And - wait for it - my favorite part. Some websites, poorly programmed, will “redetect” your location once you change your language and click on a link, and send you BACK to the incorrect language.

Isn’t it great that in an attempt to help you out, they are really forcing upon you what they think you want?

A number of years back I wrote about how flags are not synonymous with language, and should be avoided in language selectors. Many sites still have not gotten the message, but I am seeing it less and less. However, it is worth mentioning in 2025 that location, browser or device settings are also not synonymous with my desired (or only) language.

Location ≠ Language

As mentioned above, just because the visitor to a website is in a specific location doesn’t mean they prefer (or can use) the predominant language there. Some countries have multiple languages, so targeting their location becomes a language crap shoot.

While it’s understandable on the one hand that large multinational companies have thousands (or millions) of visitors and automatically serving a language could be helpful, these same companies have the size and resources available to come up with much better solutions.

And, in the case of the Microsoft example above (and, to be fair, many other sites), you should never, ever, ever force your visitors to search for the language selector.

We’ve seen in the example at the start of this long rant, but consider the following as well:

• Someone is using a VPN (Proton VPN is decent and has a free option — yes, I use it; not sponsored), but they aren’t actually in Brazil, and they can’t speak or read a word of Portuguese.
• A person lives in Brazil and browses a local Portuguese website. When it's time to make a purchase they prefer to use their work credit card, which charges in USD and not reales..
• A traveler visiting Brazil for a few days signs in, but is stuck with sites that assume Portuguese fluency — which they totally don’t have.

Because the web developer, in their infinite wisdom and analysis of user statistics in your country… decided that their multi-lingual website should just save you the time and frustration of looking for the language you want. So it redirects you to English, since you live in Canada. However, you live in Quebec, and you speak French. And the stupid website keeps redirecting you to English. Great user experience, right? You can have whatever you like, as long as you choose this one.

I said it here. Another fascinating article. Go and read it. :)

Signal The Switch

Ok, so you’ve seen the error of your way (or not) and would like to at least make language switching easy to find and use. Where should it be displayed?

For most (Western world, at least) websites, a visitor will look for (and hope to find) a language selection flotation device at the top of the website, as Vitaly Friedman mentions in his article Designing a Perfect Language Selector UX (English). Top right, top left. But the top. Please. If you simply must put it in the footer, add it as an ADDITIONAL helper, not the only one.

And please, please, please - do not use flags. Flags will call attention to the language selector, that is true. However, if the flag (for political or historical reasons) conjures up bad/awful/terrible memories, it is the equivalent of “Hey, look over here, look over here ….. ok, now that I have your attention….. fuck you!”

There are many ways to go about it, but at least on this simple website, where there are only two languages, it is easy to find. Right there in the navigation. Simple nav, simple location.

If the language selector on a website is so damn difficult to find or use, maybe the nav needs to be made simpler. But that’s the topic of another article.  :)

Photo Used: pexels.com