Localization:

Automating Translations

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Overview

Role

Teams

Lead UI/UX Designer

Product Manager, Merchandising team, Localization team, 6 Engineers, 1 designer

Timeline

Product
Type

6 months

Enterprise internal tool enhancement that empowers Roku’s merchandising team to efficiently request, publish, and manage localized content across 20+ countries, with scalable foundations for future growth.

Discover

On-site research

Key UX responsibilities

  • Interviewed stakeholders along with new and super users of localization within ScreenBuilder

  • Real-environment usability observation in active warehouses

  • Captured task flows, tool used, and pain points

Key insights

  • 15+ manual steps to request a single translation

  • Limited visibility between the Merchandising and Localization teams created duplicate requests and fragmented workflows, resulting in avoidable delays and increased operational costs.

  • No standardized workflow

Impact

Uncovered the biggest pain points in the workflow, which guided our redesign decisions and helped define what “ready for users” looked like.

Process Mapping

Key UX responsibilities

Mapped the full end-to-end user journey, documenting all tasks, decisions, and dependencies to understand how the current experience really works.

Impact

Established a shared cross-functional understanding of how the system works today, providing a single source of truth that guided the design enhancement.

Problem Statement

As a merchandiser, I rely on a manual process to send translation requests to the Localization team, which slows down our workflow and contributes to repeated delays, inefficiencies, and unnecessary costs for the company.

Design

User journey

By collaborating closely with the Merchandising team in a focused, low-pressure environment, we mapped the full end-to-end workflow. The research revealed that users were required to complete more than 15 manual steps while making requests, creating significant bottlenecks and occasionally leading to costly duplicate submissions.

Data

  • After meeting with Merchandising team, I met with Engineering to discuss nice-to-haves and user requirements

  • Use of new CMS system (crane-api) and integration with various translation tools like Babelfish and Smartling has automated many aspects of the translation process, reducing errors and increasing throughput.

UI

ScreenBuilder adopted the Roku Design System, enabling a more consistent and accessible UI through RDS-provided components.

UX Impact

Solution

Introduced an automated localization workflow that removed many of the manual steps required to request and process translations. This streamlined the experience for both Merchandising and the Localization team, reduced errors, and allowed specialists to focus on higher-value work—ultimately improving the quality and consistency of translated content.

🚀 Outcome

  • Minimized manual steps required by the translation team, allowing them to focus on high-value tasks and improving the overall quality of translations

  • Right image: Partnered closely with engineering to transform the solution into a reusable global component, making it easy for other teams to integrate into their tools while reducing implementation time and effort.

  • Pending quantitative data to confirm impact

These improvements have collectively contributed to a more efficient and effective workflow within the company, leveraging automation to enhance productivity and accuracy in translations.

Translation automation is an overall success

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