The importance of technical context for effective translation

[djafifa]

My translation task mostly involved converting a series of "strings" from English to Jamaican English or Patois. Strings are instructions or responses that the computer will give based on operations or functions performed by the user. The translation file list the strings in some kind of order as you translate it becomes apparent, but it is not immediately apparent what the order is or it is difficult to see how the strings connect to the big picture. This is where understanding context becomes important and my question for doing translation work begins.
In approaching translation the way we did. There is one important assumption that are been made. That is; translation is done by taking one word and converting it to another word. This assumption can be problematic when you consider the following:

Would i use different words if i were given a picture of the broader context? For example how the instructions/strings were created? what the assumptions were of the interactions between the machine, the system and the user?

Could translation be improved if there was interaction between the developers and the translator.

It seems to me that at the point where the translation starts there is also an assumption that the "technical" originates from the language being translated. that there is no technical in "translation" language.

Removing the context from translation overlooks the power of words and that words only have meaning in certain context.