How do you deal with formal / informal speech when building an application that must have all its phrases in one of those?
Most frameworks will let you pick the language for things such as form validation error messages, by setting it to something like ‘en-GB’ or ‘fr-FR’.
But if you want to change from formal to informal or viceversa, you will have to edit the language files.
I know this isn’t a big issue in english, but it is in other languages where you have to pick the correct word for say, the equivalent of ‘You’, depending on whether it is a formal or informal conversation. The same can happen with almost any word in the sentence, depending on the language.
Any thoughts?
Have you ever been told to build an application fully in formal / informal speech?
Does the user even care about this?
Informal vs Formal
The real problem with choosing the form is the fact that it really depends on who you speak to. It is probably OK to use informal messages to an English user, but it would be regarded as an offense if you use the same tone to for example Japanese user. It is the essence of Internationalization.
How to deal with it?
I suggest to pick one “tone” and consequently use it throughout an application. If it is informal (for example target users are teenagers), then be it. However, let Localization decide on how to translate these messages, for they should have the vast knowledge of target market.
If you need to have both formal and informal language in one application, for example depending on target user’s age, you can think of implementing themes. Of course theme should not only customize messages but also the User Interface (styles, colors). Again, if you do, let L10n decide what is good for international market (some themes might not be applicable for that market).
Does user even care?
Some users do, some users don’t. Depends. From my experience, Asian customers (especially Japanese and Chinese) tend to care a lot. Using informal speech or bright colors might seem as if you being rude to them.