Internationalization of the ClepiTO Web Platform ^†

Abstract

This adaptation consists of the translation from Spanish into Portuguese of the different contents offered by the ClepiTO web platform to be able to carry out a pilot test with a larger population in Portugal and thus be able to compare the results obtained among the Spanish and Portuguese population

1. Introduction

This work arises as a continuation of a research project in the field of health that focuses on the study of the use of technologies in elderly people to promote the health of this population. This project was carried out during 3 years, during which a technological solution was investigated and developed that offers services oriented to the evaluation and intervention with older people in three areas of action: increase urinary continence, the detection and prevention of falls and the sleep control [1].

As a result of this project, a web platform called ClepiTO was implemented, which was used in a pilot study with the Spanish population.

2. Objective

The main objective of this web internationalization is the adaptation of the ClepiTO website to Portuguese-Speaking countries. The internationalization process enabled to deploy in a production environment to its later use at international level, and to be able to compare different populations with similar characteristics.

3. Material and methods

3.1. Design

The first step was to do some guides that represent the contents and the functionalities of the website to translate through collaboration with experienced health practitioners from Portugal that participates in the pilot test.

The second step was to develop the changes in the project with some technical considerations that are described in the next subsection.

Lastly, the website will be used in a pilot study in the Oporto area, with the collaboration of research groups from the Porto Polytechnic Institute.

3.2. Technical considerations

• Because of lexicon similarities between both languages there have been no longitudinal variations in the contents and, consequently, there have been no major changes in the interfaces.
• The proximity between both languages avoid the adaptation of the typography in the website contents.
• An evaluation of changes to be introduced in the design of the database was made. The chosen strategy was based on the introduction of language columns because many more translations are not expected in the future nor a critical loss of performance in the system.
• The rest of the contents to be translated have been collected in a structure of resource files, in which the content is mapped according to the location from which it is accessed by the browser.

4. Results and Conclusions

Since the pilot study has not yet been carried out using the adapted tool, it will be necessary to wait for the final results with the analysis performed, as well as future tests with larger samples, to determine if the project has a real impact on the quality of life.