Building English/Arabic sites without breaking either language

Shipping English and Arabic on the same site isn't a translation task. It changes spacing, line length, and how navigation reads.

The common mistake: design the English version first, then mirror it for Arabic. You end up with Arabic text squeezed into button widths sized for English words.

Instead, design both from the same components on day one. Set a type scale and spacing that work for longer Arabic words and shorter English ones, and test both directions before either one ships.

Tone matters as much as layout. If the English copy sounds direct and the Arabic copy sounds overly formal, it reads as two different products, not one bilingual one.

Done right, a visitor in either language should feel like the site was built for them first, not adapted for them second.