Google Language Explorer is an interactive website and open-source data repository. Much of the linguistic information currently available online lives behind a paywall, or may be outdated entirely. Our objective was to create an easy and visually appealing way to navigate the world’s largest open-source repository of language data. The site needed to be easily accessible for researchers, as well as language enthusiasts and the general public. The site is powered by data collected by Google on the world’s 7,000+ languages. This data is now accessible to everyone for free in the Language Explorer.
One question guided the entire project: how do you represent the entirety of the world’s languages? When different languages have inconsistent amounts of information available about them online, we needed to ensure consistency in how they were displayed on the site. We had to represent every region, language, and dialect accurately, but also ensure that they were treated equally despite the differences in their data. There were several considerations to come out of this one north star.
The most significant challenge in this project was figuring out how to translate an existing GitHub page into an inspiring website that drives users to keep exploring. The Linguameta repository, the machine learning technology behind the Google Research team’s language inclusion work, has only been available in its original format, leaving the data unoptimized and inaccessible to the majority of the population. After experimenting with a variety of options and approaches, we ended up customizing the back-end data pipeline so that the information is optimized before it even reaches the user. This way, the site experience remains consistent no matter which piece of data someone is looking at.
The initial vision of the site required a significant amount of time dedicated to deep research, specifically on how to best represent each language. We ran into challenges with the site's UX structure early on, experimenting with a variety of approaches. We also had three major use cases for people visiting the Language Explorer site, so we had to consider each of them when developing its overall system of navigation.
We wanted people to explore their curiosity interactively, so we created a dynamic 3D globe using webGL, making the globe its own navigation tool with reactive sound design. For site navigation, we made the search bar easily accessible to anyone already knowing what they are looking for. Then, we created a particularly expansive language filtering system, allowing both researchers to find the answers they need easily and the general population to learn through exploration. On the site, you can search for a language by name, but also by number of speakers, region, endangerment status, and more, making the overall experience more accessible for all.
This project was a continuation of Google’s Language Inclusion initiative, a program we began working on several years ago with a marketing site that told the story of how Google has been working in this space, and how that work has impacted communities around the world. The Language Explorer website is the latest addition, giving researchers a new opportunity to access and utilize the data that’s been collected, and bringing awareness to this pivotal accessibility initiative.
While we’re unable to access the client’s traffic reports or the site’s specific number of visitors, we do know that the Google Research team was enthusiastic about this launch and excited to see their work represented here, knowing that this initiative is improving accessibility online for millions of people with every additional piece of language data. This work has most recently led to 110 new languages being added to Google Translate — the largest expansion to date — which provides translation access to 614 million speakers. As the data is applied to new tools and technologies, it makes the internet’s information more accessible for everyone.
