If you want to save on space by displaying only flags and removing the text on the widget, there are a few things to consider first.
Displaying only flags without text is possible, but by far it’s not a popular option. This is because it can lead to confusion for visitors – and potentially a loss of sales.
Here are some real-world examples:
- Which flag should represent English?
- Does the flag for India represent Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil or Telugu?
- What about the South African flag – that could mean Afrikaans, Xhosa or Zulu!
- And the Irish, French and Italian flags look very similar, some flags are hard to distinguish one from another.
The intention of the app is to change the language. But flags aren’t languages, they represent countries, This is why it’s best practice to show a flag alongside the text which confirms the language.
The flag shows customers where to change language, and the text is a clear statement of which language is selected. This improves user experience by avoiding customer confusion.