Learn more about non-English language food seekers and how we might support them

[fancyham]

Context

Currently, Food Oasis only supports the English language which means we don't support well the many food-seekers who are not fluent in English.

We currently have very little information about this significant group of users, and I think we can start getting (and sharing) insights based on what we can see, observe, and test and those will help us better understand these users as well as help us make informed decisions as a project.

Goals

To better understand how we might be able to better serve this audience. Supporting multiple languages is hard, part of this is looking for things we can do that are within our organizational capacity now and to plan for the future.

Google doc to collect draft questions

Action items

• [x] Let's create a list of what questions we have with an eye on how those answers might improve our product or decision making
  • [ ] Collect draft questions from other FOLA team members & the decisions they're trying to make to better support non-English speakers
  • [ ] See if any of those questions have already been answered
• [x] Conduct a mini-literature review to help identify what we know about non-English language food seekers & how they look for food resource information based on research in the US
  • [x] Draft a short 1-2 paragraph summary of the mini-literature review for quick reference : Mini-Literature Review Summary: How Non-English Speakers Seek Food Resources (read google doc) (edit)
• [ ] For areas that are still open, let's evaluate based on priority and our research capacity
• [ ] Create a research plan or plans for those areas

This is a big area to research, so we'll probably want to approach it in small and achievable pieces. This will probably be more of a mosaic than a complete picture.

We'll also want to write these up in a way so that future FOLA members (and perhaps other civic-tech groups) can use this information to both inform and make decisions.

Related and references

• 12 is the technical aspect of supporting automatic translation

[staceyrebekahscott]

@MariaRL1 Checking in on this issue to see where you want to go next with this and how the PM team can support you.

[staceyrebekahscott]

@MariaRL1 We discussed the options around using Google translate and Safari translate to address changing languages on the site. Further notes will be added to #12. This will address the technical aspect of language support so the questions remain as to how we can further support non english food seekers beyond just changing the language on the site.

[fancyham]

A couple things that would be worth researching (on the food-seeker behavior side of things), @MariaRL1 , would be if folks are aware of the auto-translation function on their phones/devices? Could be an informal survey and am also interested if all ages use it equally.

On desktop Chrome, for example, a message appears at the top of the web page saying that auto-translations are available, so that's pretty prominent.

But is that the case for Android phones?

On iOS, the 'translation-available' indicator is veerrryy subtle (an icon in the address bar changes)…. Do people even see and use it?

Also, are folks setting their devices' UI to be in their native language? (Spanish, Chinese, etc.)

Some of these might be doable via a google form poll rather than in-person interviews!

• 12 is really about the technical aspects — still very useful to know about our users!