Correcting the swing requires good translation

On behalf of a client, Lund-based company Svep Design Centre has developed a brand new electronic aid aimed at golfers. It’s all about improving a golfer’s swing with the aid of small but effective electric shocks. Harmless for most – but the manual must be clear and precise. It’s now available in 15 languages, so deWiz is ready for rollout onto the world market.

It was Christian Bergh and Markus Westerberg who came up with the idea for deWiz and founded the company deWiz Golf AB, where Christian works as CEO and Markus as Chief Technology Officer. They thought it often took a long time for players to fine-tune their swing – something many golfers would surely agree with. But what if the player wore a wristband that could create a pattern for exactly how the swing should be executed, and deliver small but clear jolts when things went wrong? And if the golfer was given the opportunity to view their swing directly on their mobile phone afterwards? Then the swing could be improved easily and significantly faster.

They turned to Svep Design with their idea to get help developing it technically, creating a stylish design and then marketing the finished product. It might sound simple, but it took four years.

“Now we have a finished product. In the summer of 2021, a major launch will take place in many countries. Everything indicates that the concept holds – it is much quicker to improve your swing with deWiz than without,”says Mikael Hegardt, technical sales representative at Svep Design Center.

Language solutions

It’s one thing to have a finished product and quite another to market it. It is at this stage that translation assistance is needed.

"Because deWiz delivers small electric shocks, the legislation of many countries requires written information in the country's language to be included in the packaging," says Mikael Hegardt.

He recommended his client to turn to Språkbolaget, and now the three of them have been working intensively together on the translations.

The tricky thing is that the use of deWiz is not always appropriate, and this must be clearly stated in the information. For example, you should not wear it when driving, if you have a pacemaker or insulin pump, or if you’re pregnant.

“It’s not dangerous, but to be on the safe side, you should avoid wearing it in these circumstances," says Mikael Hegardt.

The outcome

Språkbolaget got off to a flying start with the assignment.

"When we realised the product was ready for launch, we were in a rush. But it all worked out – Språkbolaget stepped up and produced ten translations quickly," says Mikael Hegardt.

Now he believes the number of translations is around 15. One of them is into Korean because DeWiz will be launched in South Korea, a major golfing nation, in mid-2021.

“We’re putting a huge responsibility on Språkbolaget, and we really have very little opportunity to check all of the translations. However we’re fully confident that the texts will be as clear as required," says Mikael Hegardt.

An accessory for deWiz is available in the form of an app with texts aimed at the user. Here too, Språkbolaget’s translators were called upon. The app can be downloaded in the usual way, and it was discovered by chance that when downloaded from Google Play, the text in the app was automatically translated into the user's language.

"Then we realised we needed qualified translations of these texts as well. They're not as critical as the text in the package leaflet, as that is governed by legislation. But machine translation just does not look good," says Mikael Hegardt.

© Språkbolaget, 2021
Published: 2021-06-11
Ingrid Hagdahl