Expanding Your Digital Product’s Reach through Software Localization
In the contemporary digital landscape, product developers aspire to engage a global audience. Merely supporting the original language is no longer sufficient. The essential responsibility of content and software localization into multiple languages now rests on development teams or designated individuals, such as translators or UX writers, to cater to users worldwide.
Before initiating the process, a comprehensive understanding of its principles is imperative. This ensures that the translated content is not only accurate and suitable but also contributes to delivering the optimal user experience.
Localization vs. Translation
In terms of meaning and practice, the concept is a distinct form of translation. Unlike traditional translation, which prioritizes conveying the original text's meaning while preserving the author's style, often suitable for literature or precise reference materials, localization takes a different approach.
As a translation principle, this process involves "localizing" content by adapting it to align with the cultural nuances and language preferences of users in specific regions. This adjustment facilitates a deeper understanding for users without rigid adherence to the original text. This approach is well-suited for general communication, making it applicable to both content and software localization, where immediate comprehension is crucial.
Effective localized content demands flexibility. In certain contexts, maintaining the original words or using transliteration may enhance clarity, particularly when dealing with technical terms. Occasionally, altering, condensing, or supplementing content proves beneficial in enhancing communication.
Its Power in Software Development
Software interfaces are commonly crafted in English, posing a barrier for users not fluent in the language or preferring a different primary language. Localizing the product tackles this challenge by translating microcopy and other user-facing text into the user's language of choice. This not only enhances software usability and comprehension but also elevates the overall user experience, fostering increased adoption.
Beyond enhancing user experience, software localization serves as a strategic tool for expanding a software developer's market reach. While English holds global prominence, over 75% of the world's population communicates primarily in languages other than English. Through this practice, developers can tap into this vast audience, broadening their reach and enhancing the potential for widespread success.
Effectiveness Metrics
1. Culture and Value
When localizing content, cultural nuances and values emerge as pivotal considerations. Take Thai, for instance, which incorporates honorific endings like “krub” and “ka” absent in English. The usage of these endings depends on the context and the translator's discernment.
The localizing process extends beyond mere linguistic adjustments; it encompasses symbols and colors. Consider the Folded Hands emoji, widely used in Asia to convey religious sentiments like gratitude, apologies, or requests. In the West, however, it's often interpreted as a symbol of a high-five gesture. Similarly, colors play a role—red is considered auspicious in Chinese culture while black carries a connotation of bad luck in Thailand.
2. Writing Directionality
While the majority of languages are traditionally written from left to right, certain languages, like Arabic and Hebrew, deviate from this convention. Moreover, languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean can be arranged in vertical lines from top to bottom seamlessly. However, this may not be suitable for languages designed primarily for horizontal formatting, particularly Thai, which features a significant number of vowels and tones written over or under the line.
Hence, careful consideration of the software interface is essential to align with the writing direction of the target language. In some instances, adjustments may be necessary to optimize user experience and readability.
3. Punctuation and Special Characters
Certain languages incorporate special characters or symbols, and during the localizing process from the source to the target language, these elements might require substitution or removal to align with the nuances of the target language.
Beyond influencing meaning, certain special characters can also impact the available display space in the user interface (UI). This aspect will be further explored in the subsequent section.
4. Character and Space Limit
Due to the different structures of languages, it is very likely that the number of characters used in a product will not be the same. Additionally, the different sizes of some characters can directly affect the limited space available in the UI. Therefore, the translator may need to adjust the number of words to be close to the number of words in the original, without affecting the communication of the original content.
In cases where the number of words cannot be adjusted, it is the responsibility of the UX/UI designer to adjust the font size or layout to be flexible according to the content. A clear example is Thai, which always uses vowels and tones together. It often has problems when the line spacing is too small, resulting in the overlap of characters from other lines.
5. Formatting
The writing systems in various languages, encompassing elements like the calendar, date format, numbers, units of measurement, and address format, exhibit notable variations. For instance, Thai conventions dictate the date format as day/month/year, while Americans adhere to the month/day/year format.
Additionally, Thais are accustomed to the metric system, whereas Americans employ the imperial system, measuring height in feet and inches. Harmonizing these data requires converting them to a uniform unit of measurement for universal user understanding.
Localization for a Banking Application
We completed a project for a prominent client, involving the ttb touch application for ttb bank.
In the registration process for the ttb touch application, we've localized the sentence "Mobile number is not registered" to "Incorrect phone number" in the Thai version. While "Mobile number" is technically accurate, it's not commonly used in everyday conversation. Therefore, we opted for "phone number" for better user familiarity. Additionally, changing "not registered" to "incorrect" eliminates redundancy, improves clarity, and enhances conciseness. This approach is consistently applied throughout the content of the ttb touch application.
Localize with a Specialist
Whether you're developing a website or application requiring software localization, Morphosis provides comprehensive product development services to meet your needs. Our offerings encompass Thai-English/English-Thai services and customized content writing. Our goal is to ensure that your users enjoy the best possible experience tailored to their preferences.
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