Smartcat is an “all-in-one platform connecting businesses and translators into a streamlined content delivery loop”. In this video, you’ll see my first experience with the localization tool. How did it go?
I’ve documented my whole journey with Smartcat from the first home page visit, through creating a project, to downloading the translated files in German, Czech and Japanese.
Andrej Zito
How does it look like when you try out Smartcat for the very first time? I had this experience just recently, I visited the homepage, I sign up for a free trial account, I created the project, uploaded the files, had them translated and finally downloaded translated files back. Now what was my experience dike? You’re going to see that in this video.
Andrej Zito
Hi, guys, welcome to another episode in the TMS UX series where together we discover new localization tools. If you are new to the series, what I’m basically doing is that every two weeks, I try out a new TMS and I have my two very simple Office documents translated using that platform. And along the way, I provide commentary on how I feel about the design, the style, the UX, and so on. Now, for those of you who are regular to the series, as you know, I used to roll a dice which would tell me which TMS to pick next. But I think we’re actually getting to the end of the list at nemsis website because either I tried a TMS or the company wasn’t responding to me or waiting for them to allow me to use the TMS and Smartcat might be actually the very last free trial TMS on the list that I’m going to try. So good news, bad news we might be getting to the end of this series.
Andrej Zito
Well, before we get into the review of Smartcat, let me make a quick very quick disclaimer. Everything I say in this video is just my own personal opinion how I feel about the design, the style, the consistency the user experience, I’m just sharing how I feel during this whole thing. So by no means is this recommendation with a Smartcat is right TMS for you are not. I don’t cover in depth features of each TMS so your business needs may need something else than what I’m focusing on with that being said let’s get finally into the review of Smartcat London then contacted on tram nothing there were to be easing meme servers as DLP blah blah blah smarkets markets The only thing that I haven’t tried yet. Smartcat, okay. Smartcat it is. Smartcat it is it’s probably one me like you probably approve purple.
Andrej Zito
Smartlink also had something purple pinkish right huh okay I just see this over here but what I see behind it looks very nice. Smartcat all in one blog for those who you are so we can show you what we have. Um which company changed? No, I like the previous one. We use cookies. Okay, good. So stupid this it’s this color. I like the previous one but I mean first impression is it looks nice and clean. Very nice. Professional. A website this is anyway what am I talking about? We’re thinking that I always look at is the the cookie consent which was very minimalistic that’s fine. And then we have this shit icon which is still on on brand on color. Purple it is what is the slow chrome home Did you see at the top liquidation event? live on May 27. Book free spot Nope. The queue. Okay, here we have this one.
Andrej Zito
So we don’t have the background or pool. It’s just the CTAs are signed. It looks a very good Okay, so the hierarchy the hero section definitely maybe first. Again, it’s just happy people doesn’t say much about the product level or project management productivity and reduce price per word by at least 25% ooh oh by the way, it gets market for free. Yes, we can do it. With your team together to double your project management productivity costs per word backwater never have to count per use licenses again. Nice. Okay. So the hierarchy is very clean here. Very clean and clear. The buttons are good to hovers. Just one person to a ghost. Interesting, interesting. Interesting. I don’t like the hover on this. much because the contrast is almost gone.
Andrej Zito
But I think the important thing is that when you hover it something changes. So that’s good for language companies. Oh, can I change? I this one, this one I like more I think the blue color fits goes better with the with the purple. Anyway, let’s continue with the company’s I mean it’s it looks good. It looks super good. Super super nice. The menu nothing here this is the first time I think that we see the menu under this one. And the only used in that the section here actually changed where you are. That’s interesting. unwish changer. Yeah, I mean, nothing to say here more. It looks super good, super clean. Let’s go next, double your project management productivity. That is a very interesting thing. reviewed translated text in context which demo shoe here we have a different opera. This one when I prefer more proving the trust because I said I thought it was translation. Oh, okay.
Andrej Zito
Nothing here to report for manual to automate it. I like this. Super nice, good whitespace. The images here we finally see something that looks like the product. Again, very, very good with the one color so grayish black, white. And here we have some different shades of purple. I’m not sure if this is actually how it looks like in the UI, or this is just the mock up. It looks good. It’s not super colorful. Sure my customer communication at a brand cloud portal. Nice. Lots of job distribution. It’s funny when I look at this people and I see the pink. The first thing that I think about is smartlink. Just because I did it recently and they do have the purple and the pink. Yeah, but that’s fine. Okay, I’m just looking at how they do with this hierarchy because I’m doing the same thing for my website.
Andrej Zito
I wasn’t sure this is how I normally think about the hierarchy like this one. This is the main heading for this art and then you explain the benefits for doubling your project management productivity here with smaller headings. And then you have another one. Press your price which again they explore what did they export? export? What am I talking about? explain a lot. I like it. I like it on demand sourcing and automate payments for my supply chain and teaming usage. This is good This looks like if I did if I did. This looks good as well. Blue. Okay. I mean, we’re not at MTP, we’re close. Sure, okay. So this is the first time and we see testimonials. Clara, our translation, more groups. We have a new culture. Everything gentlemen’s agreement. I like the testimonials. I think this is the first time that I see testimonials done this way.
Andrej Zito
Otherwise, it’s the traditional boring testimonial carousel, which by the way I have as well. Because it comes with Elementor. But this is super nice. Like if you have more maybe with them at the same time. Maybe I should do the same thing for my my own thing. I really like it. It’s super, super clean. It’s new. You can clearly see the focus is on what the people said you have pictures. Everybody has the same green background. That’s what I also do for for my images of the people try to have the same background for them. I don’t want to wait this guy has see more. Here we have export study. Actually, this is what I don’t get. Is it because they couldn’t fit it in. Here you have the people in the middle. It’s kind of like three column grid here. And here because it’s 222 just two pieces of information.
Andrej Zito
They decided to have two columns. That’s weird like I don’t know why look for example, wait to see more is not here. Is it just for explore key study how to know what the first glance it looks super, super good. How will they understand the results? My God, the whitespace is so good here. I will understand the results. measures the main metrics, blah, blah, blah. Okay, must reads from the language just is more specific. Okay. I want to see facts about it. Mmm hmm. This looks good. This is good. This looks good. Choose it to expressively choose to express the goal for language companies to thrive in the new economy get smarter now. work email, I would maybe change Well, maybe it’s correct. It has to. It doesn’t have to stand out at my train. So I wanted to say that I would maybe change the color of the font placeholder, but it shouldn’t be overpowering this. So it’s okay.
Andrej Zito
Gets market free again. So there’s only one main CTA, which is, let’s market three, which is what we’re going to do. Then we have maybe these watch demos here. Which technically, if you’re here, maybe I’ll make it a ghost or something else. But yeah, otherwise, the website is super, super clean. Not much to say there. I want a quick look at the four businesses. They use the blue ones keep the entire process in place. And this is the standard thing. What our users say. Maybe I should use the same thing like these guys here. Do have sort of a background on it. I like it. What are our users say? Okay, here they have different Okay, so it’s a blue and blue. different shade of blue and blue here as well. Nice. What do the last one freelancers, producers of Orange. Orange, orange, orange, orange. Well, super great.
Andrej Zito
Okay, yeah, let’s get to it. work email, assume it won’t accept my Gmail which is sad. Just going to point to fire cough. No. He didn’t tell me we’re component here. Okay, so we’re getting into the UI. I’m already seeing some something different you know, what I liked about the homepage is that everything was clean. And we had everything had so much space. Like this blood list here. Not a fan of that. It seems super cramped together and the font is so small. Can I get translation jobs? Oh, your translation company. We have a countdown. Nice. Still purple. Welcome god. Oh, yeah. Let’s personalize your accounts. Where do you work? khadem II Okay, what is your main goal with Smartcat? I do not know. Improve acquisition processes. grow my business. I don’t know what what is the outcome of selecting either of these choices.
Andrej Zito
So just go with grow my business. Get a quick tutorial, watch a two minute video on how to create a project. No. No, I have to figure it out on my own. Okay, so here we are in the UI. All I did was just an Getting my email right? I didn’t even have to send my password anywhere. Where does my password actually get set? Okay, so here the first impression on Okay, so this changes between what? between me and my company profile. Okay, I like it. I like the animation. looks super cool. It’s a little bit dark at some moments, but it always looks good. On the menu looks good at the first glance. Here we have what the stages for setting up the project. I assume everything is still purple. This thing is clean. We have a full width page. We have 0% key and words used.
Andrej Zito
My question is, am I going to be able to use MT or not? I don’t know what give me a pause here. Maybe no i don’t care about pause. Give me two downloads and get me to Emma’s UX. 1.2 which Smartcat. Okay. upload documents to create your first projects. Very nice. I showed you that. dock and the LC bank my bank. Oh, nice. These little patches. This is a word This is a spreadsheet. Very nice. We’re under Settings. To have parse. split into segments sentence based cell based nice. So order by columns. If we had on a footer text, comments, graphics, wow. translation memory. Do I need to I don’t think I need to. Next Hall. Okay. settings, new projects. Oh, automatically puts there nice based on the file. project number we don’t have. So the form looks good. I mean,
Andrej Zito
Okay, this one I’m not sure if this button would be better if it was aligned with the form. So it would be here and then here would be back. Right now it kind of seems to be loading in the space, not one with anything. When it comes to the form. One looks good. We’re using the green one. And we use the green one before. But it’s super sharp subject subject. What is the subject? We have a gaming we do have a gaming that line. That’s a big date picker. I like it. And we still have the green good. Say next Friday. From pick a time it’s good source language, English or USA. And let’s do joke money. Japanese. Let’s check my friends comments. He’s watching physician for free with feedback, what does it mean? Which messages will be sent to the mission reception provided to improve the quality of service for free edit the empty outputs.
Andrej Zito
We have to continue using the service for free What? Oh, Yandex free to Google. What’s next? We have to use Yandex added machine What if I edit it? orally? Can I use Google? No, no, it’s it’s okay. It’s not the free one. Get access Oh, I can even drag and drop mice free Yes. Next serum washing finish me finish me. Okay new project What is this? Oh, I get to create my workflow of wall processing source layer check Nope. Translation and post processing translation words do not confirm pre translate using MT translation. Let’s just do one finish is it going to be working? Your project is going to work with your project is ready. What do you want to do next? Cool templates. I don’t care about the call templates. Auto assign the next steps in your workflow. Monica we find the best freelancers for projects nice.
Andrej Zito
I don’t want to do anything. Alright. So what now this is my project it’s ID based quote I don’t need to quote Well, I think I’m first thinking is the space on the right side space is not equal. Here we have more space than we have here. We’re sure right guys this is why the full width can be a little bit of all the bad stuff is the good choice but it’s because you have so much space and some of the other sections just don’t need that much space so then you end up with so much whitespace here additional information on the project number and that’s the gaming or blah blah blah boss does a job what is it that other people will be able to translate it sure will frighten one job offer leaf term document relief for translation pre translated okay. I like this hierarchy here. What are the different languages we have progress bar status I don’t know why the status has to be read it looks like there’s some error or something but let’s see.
Andrej Zito
Opening the editor or the very first time ladies and gentlemen this is what do we do? Okay, we have a tutorial a source code Target Field there’s another thing here all new income tax preview quick the eye to see source segments in Microsoft Word docs. Can you go away what couldn’t close it? Oh, okay. Oh. Oh, it’s gross into that. Not bad not bad. Okay, we have the empty here nosorh 0% of 70,000 t m words. Is it P or NP? Thea matches or Yeah, so it didn’t count me anything for this one. Okay, the only thing we don’t have here is the tax. How can I bring it up tax Can I just copy em? dork is working nice. Oh, it looks like this. Yeah. I had this with trance effects. Then. Okay, what else do we have here? Okay, so what do I think about the editor?
Andrej Zito
By the way, if it looks nice, more like the traditional one, where you have large source target next to each other, then you have some information on the right side, we’ve seen so many times, the UI looks good. I like the fact that everything is close, here to where you put the translation. Then we have some bunch of things here. That’s all good. Confirm all segments, nice. segments confirm zero. Okay, progress bar on the top. That’s good. Is there a way for me to write is this downloading file? is this done? What does them do? not completed. But let’s do with the final check one. And it will be very fast. 41 minutes, not bad. come from all segments. And on. And that’s, and that’s it my brain. And that’s it, my friends. And we have everything translated. All the languages are completed.
Andrej Zito
Not sure why the document shows ready for translation. But okay. Okay. And I guess I just want to download I assume it’s this thing with translation now. So I’m a no. Anything else I would need to do here no cost linguistic assets? Or translate? No, I just go download. Origin file resulting file. This is like a target translated file. I guess. So. The documents are ready for download the downloading the start automatically. Okay. Smartcat. f7 translates What do we have here? Okay. I didn’t put it into the language folders. But I’ll survive that. Let’s see German. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Let’s see the spreadsheet. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, empty. And quickly. Let me check check. Yep. It’s all good. Oh, good. No rewards here.
Andrej Zito
So final comments from the side of me. The website, super, super good, super clean. Good. whitespace. good use of color. Great hierarchy. Good screenshots. Not much more to say sign up was probably the easiest one. I just gave them the the email and then immediately I was into the in the UI, creating my project. Creating project was super simple, supported both file formats easily. The options were good during the creation of the project. And then the project interface is still pretty good. Like there’s still a lot of the we’re still on color. I didn’t like the right things here. That’s too much. This looks fine. Yeah, it looks fine. The editor looked fine as well, for sure. It was pretty simple. It worked well. So yeah, overall, a very, very good experience. And that’s it. That was my review of Smartcat.
Andrej Zito
My first experience very, very good. I’m so happy that we’re ending on such a positive note. By the way, I’m not sure if we’re actually ending because I might be doing some more TMS which are not on the names is TMS list. But I’m so happy that the last three TMS that I did, were not driving me totally crazy, and it was a very, very good experience. So with that being said, if you want if you’re interested in this series, you can go check out the previous videos that I did for I think more than 1314 pms. And if you want to see a cover next, be sure to subscribe and turn on your notifications. So let me know when I post the next video and there are videos of my localization on this channel. So check it out.
