CHT in Arabic Testing – RTL & Usability Insights

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Hi everyone!

As part of the efforts to support Right-to-Left (RTL) languages in the Community Health Toolkit (CHT), Medic recently conducted manual interface testing for the Arabic language in collaboration with ICRC. This post summarizes the testing process, key findings, and next steps.

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: RTL Manual Testing Process

We followed a structured testing approach, prioritizing mobile usability, and focusing on UI consistency, translations, and overall user experience. Here’s an overview:

:pushpin: Preparing the Manual Testing Scenarios

  • Defined pre-testing, testing, and feedback instructions.
  • Created testing scenarios to cover core CHT functionalities, focusing on RTL implementation and Arabic translations.

:gear: Setting Up the Test Environment

  • Enabled Arabic (RTL) locale in a CHT testing instance.
  • Configured test devices to Arabic language settings.
  • Verified behavior across different screens and interactions.
  • Provided feedback via a shared Google Sheets spreadsheet tracking all test scenarios.

:hammer_and_wrench: Key Areas We Tested

  • Navigation & Layout – Ensured menus, buttons, and UI elements adapted correctly to RTL.
  • Text & Translations – Checked labels, tooltips, and system messages for proper translation.
  • Forms & Data Entry – Verified text input alignment, numeric fields, and placeholders.
  • Phone Numbers – Ensured proper display of LTR phone numbers inside RTL interfaces.
  • Progress Bars & Widgets – Confirmed correct alignment and direction of visual indicators.
  • Search & Filtering – Tested functionality using text in Arabic and numeric values.

:magnifying_glass_tilted_right: Key Findings & Fixes

  • Missing translations – Some configurable elements weren’t translated (e.g., specific widgets). This is a configuration-related issue rather than an implementation bug, but including them in future translation testing efforts would be helpful.
  • Phone number display – Numbers should remain LTR inside RTL layouts, requiring special handling.
  • Verification process clarification – There was initial confusion between automatic validation (e.g., SMS submissions with validation rules) and manual report verification (which helps CHWs & supervisors communicate).
  • No major RTL-specific issues remain that haven’t already been mentioned.

:loudspeaker: Opportunities to Contribute

  • Continue the manual testing effort to refine the interface experience for the Arabic language, or any other language.
  • Implement visual automated testing to ensure RTL layouts remain functional after interface updates.
  • Localizing the CHT for different languages.

:rocket: What’s Next?

The RTL implementation is planned to be available in the 4.18 release. Stay tuned for updates!

A big thank you to Babker and the ICRC team for their valuable insights and collaboration! :tada:

:handshake: How can you help?

We’d love to hear from others working with RTL languages or localizing the CHT for different languages—feel free to share your experiences and suggestions in the thread!

Additionally, if you are an Arabic speaker, you can try the CHT in Arabic and share feedback with the community!

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