Embracing the New Era: Arrow Translation and the Future of Mobile Learning

By 2025, millennials (born between 1981 and 1997) will account for more than 50% of the global workforce. This generation has had a significant impact on 21st-century workplace culture, particularly in terms of technology. Growing up in an environment dominated by the rapid development of the internet and mobile phones, millennials expect to work in a digital, connected way that aligns with how they organize their daily lives. In their app-driven world, the bureaucracy and analog processes of traditional companies seem out of place, and complex tasks can be easily accomplished with just a few clicks.

As a result, smartphones and tablets have become just as crucial in modern work culture as personal computers and laptops. Unlike previous generations, millennials demand the ability to seamlessly switch devices and work wherever and whenever they choose.

However, the adaptation of industries has been slow. Although the shift toward flexible work has begun, very few providers are willing to abandon the constraints of the 4:3 ratio, and most efforts toward mobile optimization simply shrink elements to fit screen sizes. Forcing users to tolerate small text and clickable elements is not the solution.

Fortunately, the e-learning industry has finally witnessed a revolution, driven by an open-source community and its innovative tool—Adapt Learning.

Adapt is built on HTML5, the standard for modern website design. It not only “prioritizes mobile” but also provides a foundation for creating truly responsive web experiences, ensuring a seamless experience across devices and browsers. This is exactly what 21st-century employees expect from corporate training.

A key innovation of Adapt lies in its navigation approach. Traditional course designs require that all content be visible within the screen boundaries, and users are not expected to scroll. Most authoring tools still follow the “PowerPoint presentation” style, displaying content in “slides” that users navigate through with buttons or arrows.

Today, users are accustomed to scrolling. Adapt uses scrollable navigation made up of independent text blocks and widgets, enhancing interactivity while allowing users to progress at their own pace.

Adapt also empowers developers with full control over the learning environment's design, with themes easily customizable to align with user experience and company branding. As a member of Arrow Translation's learning team, we are excited to say goodbye to the days of seeing the same avatars and players across multiple customers in a short amount of time.

This new solution is particularly significant for those of us working in the localization industry. The traditional characteristics of e-learning platforms—rigid layouts, limited space, and inflexible navigation—pose challenges in localization as well. Text naturally expands or contracts during the translation process, making it more difficult to localize content in fixed layouts. Designing responsive courses simplifies and makes the localization process more cost-effective. Therefore, Adapt has become an essential tool for developers who wish to create content that is easy to localize.

◀️：Innovation and Future Outlook of the Translation Industry

▶️：Embracing the New Era of Machine Translation: Arrow Translation's Path to Innovation