It is challenging to live a day without using the internet since it has revolutionized human existence. We can watch our favorite movies online, shop for presents for the people we care about, and amuse ourselves with news and games, among other things. And this gave companies great opportunities because it is now much easier to reach customers and users; in the past, expanding internationally required moving your company to the country you wanted to target and hiring local staff to handle everything from management to advertising.
The process won’t finish there because the world is continually evolving, and new products and services are becoming accessible. However, to increase your user base or sales, it is crucial to tailor your product or service to the needs of the market, especially to the cultural and linguistic quirks of that area. Herein lies the function of localization; with its application, you ensure that the product or service you provide will appear more regional to its end consumers.
It would be best to remember that localization requires care and may be expensive and time-consuming. But you must constantly upgrade your platform to meet your customers’ needs. Still, with the aid of software localization services, you will achieve the most significant outcomes, and your ROI will be as anticipated. What is the definition of localization, and what are the benefits of continual localization? What are its difficulties as well? All the answers you will find below!
What is localization?
Translation and localization are two independent concepts that are frequently mixed. The Globalization and Localization Association defines localization as the complete process of adapting a product or information to a particular environment or market.
Text conversion from one language to another is called translation. Localization involves more than just translation, which is only one component.
Additional aspects that must be localized for a target market include:
- Adapting visuals and design to show translated text correctly
- 2 Modifying the content to match preferences
- Converting to local money and measuring units
- Formatting components like dates, addresses, and phone numbers correctly
- Taking legal and regulatory obligations into account locally
In a nutshell, localization gives something the appearance and feels that the intended audience is expecting.
What is continuous localization?
Modern existence requires continual localization to unlock global expansion. Continuous integration, a subtype of the Agile methodology, gave rise to continuous localization. At every production cycle stage, the continuous localization material is always accessible for release. It might be made available once every three days or several times daily. The software is always accessible for release at any point throughout the development cycle when a new update happens in the code, notably in the creation of mobile apps.
What are the advantages of continuous localization?
1. Higher translation quality
Collaboration between designers, developers, and translators is necessary for continuous localization. This, together with the technology needed to make the process continuous, results in translations of superior quality since human error is reduced and everyone is continually checking each other’s work.
2. Minimize the development cycle
Productivity improvements are evident when a continuous localization workflow is in place. Teams can localize in real-time while developing and delivering features more quickly, which boosts productivity and shortens the total development cycle.
3. Full transparency
Continuous localization is another way to provide total transparency for every team member, from developers to managers. This promotes teamwork and does not just support a more seamless procedure.
Because of the nature of the process, translators and developers must often communicate ideas and information on language choices. This fosters a more cordial working atmosphere and results in a more comprehensive end output.
4. Boost the user experience
Users may access the full capabilities more quickly when you release products to market. As a result, consumers will have access to the whole feature set of your product from anywhere in the globe, contributing to their overall pleasure.
5. Increased speed to market
Regardless of how minor the feature update may be, material may be delivered in real time to the target language markets as soon as it is available. Continuous localization reduces the need to hold off on introducing a product until vast amounts of material have been finished since translators can start localization work even when the function is still under development.
As a result of your ability to operate in many markets, you may debut simultaneously in several nations, maximizing the impact of your launches and guaranteeing that clients can use your goods or services as soon as feasible.
What are the challenges of continuous localization?
1. Effective inter-functional cooperation
The difficulties of translation labor are frequently unknown to software engineers, and vice versa. This is a constant difficulty in localization, but it takes on even greater importance when you include Agile operations’ pace and intensity. You’ll require translation partners who have experience with the Agile approach, can translate daily, and provide as soon as possible. There are also product managers, designers, UX writers, and marketers on software teams, as well as translators and developers.
2. Organizing and setting up translation costs
Translators will commonly spend a few hours each week working on only about 150 words. Because of this, it may be difficult for translators to determine how much to charge or when to use the idea of a minimum cost. Additionally, translators must efficiently manage their workload to help customers with more critical information. It might be challenging to accommodate these more frequent but lesser demands.
3. Maintaining accuracy and consistency in translation
Getting translations properly is challenging, and it’s even more difficult to do it quickly for a tiny portion of a software product. Accuracy, consistency, and context all become significant obstacles. Translators must become familiar with the subject matter and the surrounding context. Similar to how translation accuracy depends on planning and product understanding, software teams should recognize this. This becomes trickier when small, unconnected string translation requests are made.
Conclusion
Localization is a necessity to establish your position in the global market. By using continuous localization, you will have a higher quality translation, shorten the development cycle, improve the user experience, and ensure transparency for the entire team working on it. Making your website or application appear more local to users is also crucial. As was already indicated, ongoing localization has difficulties, but working with a reliable software localization company may address all problems.
