Translating an English interface into Kiswahili produces Kiswahili words in English shapes. We design the other way round.
A button that says 'Submit' in English and 'Tuma' in Kiswahili is easy. What's hard is when the whole mental model is wrong — when 'dashboard' assumes a desk, a report assumes an accountant, and a workflow assumes an office.
Kiswahili-first means we start from how our clients talk about their work: mahesabu, mahudhurio, risiti. Then we design screens around those words, and let English be the translation.
The results are measurable: staff trained in minutes instead of hours, fewer support calls, and owners who actually open their own reports.
Keep reading — Endelea kusoma
