After carefully reviewing the draft, I believe you can replace “Indonesian language” with another country to gauge the effectiveness of your writing approach for your native language.
For Whom?
Walk into almost any Indonesian tech company and peek into the content design process. You'll likely find the same ritual, when copy is drafted in English, stakeholders review and approve the English version, and only at the near-last stage it's "translated" into Indonesian, the language that most users will actually experience.
On the surface, this seems harmless. English is the "neutral" working language, after all. But dig deeper, and a problem starts to emerge because when a product's source of truth is English, the Indonesian version becomes a derivative, not a design in its own right. And the people most impacted (Indonesian users) rarely have a seat at the table.
The Stakeholder Bias
The preference for English-first approval step doesn't come from users. It comes from stakeholders. Product managers, investors, and decision-makers often feel more comfortable evaluating content in English. It's the language of pitch decks, quarterly reviews, and global aspirations.
English signals "seriousness," while Indonesian is treated as a layer to be "localized later."
But the irony is... the majority of Indonesian users set their devices to Indonesian. For them, the product lives or dies in Bahasa Indonesia. The content that feels "off," too formal, or overly literal is not a translation problem. It's a systemic one.
The Second-Class Experience
When Indonesian is treated as secondary, the results are predictable. I've seen fintech apps where error messages read like legal documents because they're direct translations of English regulatory copy. "Your transaction cannot be processed at this time" becomes "Transaksi Anda tidak dapat diproses saat ini"—technically correct, but only stiff untrained staff talks like that.
Compare this to how Indonesians naturally communicate about money problems "Mohon maaf, proses transfer Anda gagal" or more casual if you're trendy new digital bank that's need validation as a younger market grabber liek "Transfernya gagal nih, Silakan coba lagi."
The difference is cultural, not just linguistic aspect.
One feels like a machine talking; the other feels human.
These aren't edge cases. When Indonesian is an afterthought, you get:
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Clunky translations that preserve English sentence structure instead of Indonesian flow
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Tone mismatches that sound either too stiff or too casual because no one discussed how the product should "feel" in Indonesian
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Missed opportunities to use cultural references, familiar idioms (my fave!), or conversational patterns that actually resonate with local users
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Indonesian users are handed a second-class version of the product, while the English-first workflow gets all the attention and care.
The Real Cost
This approach can be considered a design flaw with measurable consequences.
Trust and usability suffer. Users who encounter awkward Indonesian copy won't file a bug report or complain to your content team. They'll simply stop trusting the product. I've seen conversion rates drop in payment flows where the copy felt too formal or unfamiliar, making users wonder if they were on a legitimate site.
Teams waste cycles. UX writers and localization translators spend endless rounds "fixing" copy that was never designed for Indonesian in the first place. They're essentially doing damage control rather than crafting intentional experiences.
Brands lose relevance. By failing to speak in the language users actually live in, companies miss chances to build deeper loyalty.
In my (measured) opinion, the fix isn't complicated, but it requires a fundamental mindset shift.
Flip the workflow. For products where the majority audience is Indonesian, make Bahasa Indonesia the source of truth. Start there. Feel how the copy works in Indonesian first, then translate to English for stakeholder decks and documentation.
Empower local content designers. Don't treat them as translators cleaning up after the "real" design work. Give them authority in the approval process. When a Indonesian content designer says the copy doesn't work, that should carry the same weight as a designer saying the visual hierarchy is off.
Educate stakeholders. Help decision-makers understand that English is not always the best lens for evaluating product language. If the user experience happens in Indonesian, then the approval process should center Indonesian too. This means getting comfortable with copy that might feel "too casual" or "too local" when back-translated to English.
Design for Indonesian patterns. Indonesian digital communication has its own rhythm, more conversational, often mixing formal and informal registers, comfortable with abbreviations and contractions. Honor that instead of forcing English patterns into Indonesian words.
Well, if Indonesian products are built for Indonesian users, then why is English still sitting at the head of the table making final decisions about copy quality?
The answer isn't about efficiency or global standards because it's about power structures, comfort zones, and whose perspective gets prioritized. Until we flip this dynamic and put Indonesian users at the center of the Indonesian user experience, we'll keep designing for conference rooms instead of real people.
The everyday Indonesian navigating your app doesn't care that your English copy won awards or got stakeholder approval. They care whether your product speaks their language, literally and culturally. And right now, for too many products, it doesn't.
It's time to really, I mean really, consider whose voice we're actually designing for.