Imagine if there was a Gengo app where you could view, edit, and submit assignments on your iOS/Android device, instead of moving from web browser to Word and needing to resize the window constantly. The assignments would be stored on your device, so you could work on them offline at any time and any place.
Instead of recommending that we download and pay for RSS readers, imagine if Gengo provided us with an app which showed us push notifications whenever an assignment was available or had been reviewed. From Gengo’s vantage point, assignments would be picked up a lot faster; perhaps the app could also be made available to customers, which would help ensure repeat usage.
If there was a Gengo app with in-app customer support, we could immediately communicate with Gengo staff about technical difficulties, etc. instead of having to search for the Gengo support email and log into email.
I’m picturing a Gengo app that would streamline the translation work that we do and help us focus more on the translations themselves.
What features would you like if a Gengo app existed?
7 comments
Yeah, RSS notifications seem medieval.
Hello Tammy, thanks for sharing your suggestions with us. Yes, we are definitely aware of the need for notifications. Since we are somewhat limited in resources, this is something that we are hoping to be able to look into later on in the year.
It's great that you've started this conversation up and I'm sure we'd all be really interested to hear what everyone in our community has to say about your last question, 'What features would you like if a Gengo app existed?' Even if we can't necessarily implement everybody's ideas (or we can't always implement them immediately), we do keep a record of all the suggestions that people make on the forums and we look into these as and when we can. Please do keep the conversation coming!
I can see how notifications would be useful and an app might give Gengo access to a larger pool of people or make it more accessible for them. Especially the latter two points are why I see a good chance of this happening, even if it seems like there are rather too many translators on Gengo than too few. At least in my language pair, too long pick-up times aren't a problem. In fact, it's quite the opposite: if something isn't picked up immediately, there is probably something wrong with it.
Personally and egoistically, I'd much rather see those resources go into further improving the in-browser editor before taking on yet another project. It will probably never be able to compete with a full translation solution or even a dedicated word processor, but right now there are still features missing that I'd consider basic and that have been requested for years in some instances, like for example an option to display formatting characters. (Unless that's a general limitation of browsers, in which case it would be an argument for an app.)
For the same reason, I also prefer document-based jobs where I can work in a software of my choice without much hassle and I'd love to see an option to export collections from the workbench and import them again. I'm a bit sceptical about how fast an app would be able to match even the current workbench, let alone other existing software and I'm a bit worried it might bind resources for development and maintenance. Granted I'm probably also not the target audience for this.
I tend to agree with Chris on this. A professional app covering all aspects as described by Tammy would of course be neat to have on an iPad or other pad (I cannot envisage to do serious translation work on a smartphone ...), but I know that that would be a very costly and big project, and then I would rather have Gengo work on improvements to the web based solutions. If the web based solutions are developed using responsive design or adaptive design they will also work well for other screen sizes. For most jobs of some size, I consult a number of web resources which I have ready at hand in other browser tabs, and quickly switching between these is no problem on a PC. Often I export from the workbench to Word to aid my own proofreading, and copying and pasting is in my experience much quicker on a PC than on a pad. But ... I guess I am among the 'older' translators, - let's hear what the youngsters have to say about this :-) Gunnar
I totally agree with Chris :) Translation is something that can only be done on a laptop/computer with a true keyboard, thus why bother making a mobile app; a desktop app would be preferred, and yet nowadays nearly every desktop app would be made by using Electron and therefore is just another ‘designated Chrome’ :)
Because I don’t have a computer and do all my translations on an iPad and iPhone :)
Personally, I can't see how any serious translator can work effectively on a tablet or phone. I'd much rather some of the many suggestions for improving the workbench be implemented.