Ishani’s Experience Constructing the Red Thread Digital Translation Project

I translated the Red Thread Project from Omeka to WordPress. Website translation is the process of taking the content of one website and adapting it to another site.My first step was to explore the Red Thread page and I learned that the site was inspired by a course taught at UO, The Global History of Color. It is focused on exploring the history of natural red colors. As I explored the website, I focused on the formatting since I would be utilizing a similar format when I create it through WordPress.

Then, I created a data management plan and organized the translation images on my computer. My data management plan consisted of me describing the data that I will be collecting and how I will document it. I also learned how to store images and other important files on my computer as well as the best methods of organizing them. I then started using the Divi builder, which is a WordPress plugin that helps customize your site. I started to do live wireframing which I learned was not as helpful as wireframing with paper and sticky notes. So I then made wireframes each page of the site with paper and sticky notes to represent each component of the site. I had not put much content into my site at this point so I deleted the first site that I created because the theme was messing up the story map iframe. An iframe is a component of an HTML element that allows you to embed media within the page. I created a new site and the story map worked.

I moved forward with the art images and descriptions for each page. As I uploaded each image, I made sure to include alt text to each one enabling visually impaired viewers to know what the image is. After I had created all pages, I moved on to the footer which was important since it was on every page of the original site. I created a global footer which included the citation and licensing.

I then fine tuned the site by finding the most similar fonts, color matching different elements to the original site, and checking that every link worked. Towards the end of the translation process, I compared the original site and my site side by side and they look very similar. I navigated through my site like a user would and noticed both sites have a similar interaction. Lastly, I added my name to the Acknowledgements page of the site to let users know that this site is a translation and who translated it. I also included this information in the Welcome section of the home page, allowing viewers to immediately know that this is a translation of the original Red Thread site.

Overall, the beginning process was a little intimidating because this was a task I had never done before. With help from Kate, Franny, Azle, Gabrielle, and doing my own research, it became a fun and rewarding process.

Image Credit: Person Writing on White Paper by UX Indonesia

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