One aspect of the problem is deeper than just Word, or English. It affects recursively linguistic minorities, and it’s a general tendency with software developers (specially proprietary) and web designers (specially for commercial sites).
I think that it would get 1000% better if those devs and designers followed a few rules, that boil down to “don’t assume”:
Don’t assume that languages coincide with countries.
Don’t assume that someone from a certain country will want to use your product in a certain language.
Don’t assume that your site/software has support for the language that your user would like the most.
Don’t assume that the user is or isn’t monolingual.
Don’t assume that non-monolinguals are necessarily bilingual, and with English.
Don’t assume that the user is wrong or right.
Spelling corrector is a mixed blessing. It has some value as long as the user is aware of its shortcomings, and it should always worded in a way that acknowledges those shortcomings. e.g.
[Bad example] «wrod» is likely wrong. Do you mean «word»?
[Better example] «wrod» was not recognised. Do you mean «word»?
[Even better] «wrod» was not recognised. Similar word: «word»
One aspect of the problem is deeper than just Word, or English. It affects recursively linguistic minorities, and it’s a general tendency with software developers (specially proprietary) and web designers (specially for commercial sites).
I think that it would get 1000% better if those devs and designers followed a few rules, that boil down to “don’t assume”:
Spelling corrector is a mixed blessing. It has some value as long as the user is aware of its shortcomings, and it should always worded in a way that acknowledges those shortcomings. e.g.