Software Localization

Software Localization for a Global Audience: A Guide for Startups, SaaS, and Software Companies

Software Localization for a Global Audience: A Guide for Startups, SaaS, and Software Companies

Expanding your software’s reach to a global audience requires more than just translation—it demands localization.

Localization adapts your software not only to different languages but also to regional formats, cultural preferences, and technical requirements, ensuring your product feels native to each market.

This is essential for startups, software companies, and SaaS platforms aiming to thrive internationally.

What is Software Localization?

Software localization involves modifying software products to account for language differences, cultural nuances, and user experience across diverse markets.

While translation covers the linguistic aspects, localization ensures the product aligns with the regional expectations, symbols, and user behavior.

The goal is to maintain the usability and functionality of your software while making it fully accessible to a specific target audience.

Human Translation and Machine Translation with Post-Editing

A key component of software localization is translating the interface, help documents, and error messages.

For this, human translators bring cultural expertise and ensure that the translation matches local norms.

However, to streamline the process, post-editing of machine translation (MT) or AI-generated content can be integrated.

Machine translation offers speed, while human translators refine the quality, accuracy, and context, preventing awkward or incorrect translations.

This approach blends automation and human skill, offering a balance of cost-efficiency and linguistic precision.

File Formats in Software Localization

Modern software uses a variety of file formats that need to be localized.

These include:

• .xml (Extensible Markup Language)
• .json (JavaScript Object Notation)
• .po (Portable Object files)
• .resx (Resource File for .NET applications)
• .html (HyperText Markup Language)
• .yml (YAML Ain’t Markup Language)
• .xliff (XML Localization Interchange File Format)
• .srt (Subtitle file format)

Localization engineers must handle all these formats to ensure the strings, tags, and variables are correctly adapted without breaking the code.

For example, .json is commonly used in web-based applications, while .resx is typical for Windows software.

Common Language Challenges in Software Localization

Every language poses its own set of challenges in localization.

Here are some of the most frequent ones:

• German: Known for compound words and long word structures. Some German words can be twice as long as their English counterparts, causing issues with user interface (UI) elements and button sizes.
• Arabic: Written from right to left, Arabic requires not only translation but also an entire layout shift. Icons and navigation bars may need to be mirrored, and fonts must support complex scripts.
• Chinese, Japanese, and Korean: These languages use characters, not alphabets, which means a different encoding system, such as UTF-8, is essential. Additionally, the visual density of these scripts can affect line spacing and UI design.
• Spanish and French: Expanding languages that can take up to 30% more space than English, often affecting UI and design elements.
• Russian: Cyrillic script tends to have wider characters compared to Latin scripts, which can break layouts if not handled correctly.

The Localization Process

Localization is more than just converting text.

It involves several crucial steps:

1. Project Planning: Understanding your target markets and gathering all software assets, such as text files, images, videos, and interactive elements.
2. Content Extraction: Isolating the translatable elements from the code using tools like content management systems (CMS) or localization platforms.
3. Translation: Using either human translators or a combination of machine translation and human post-editing, depending on the scale and complexity of the project.
4. Adapting UI and UX: Adjusting the user interface and experience to fit the target culture and language. This may include resizing buttons for longer text, adjusting fonts for different character sets, and even redesigning layouts for languages like Arabic.
5. Functional Testing: Verifying that the localized software works as intended across all regions. This includes ensuring that all elements display correctly, text fits into the designed space, and nothing in the functionality has been disrupted during translation.
6. Quality Assurance: Involves linguistic testing and UX testing. Native speakers from target regions ensure that translations are contextually correct and natural. The UX team checks whether the localized software maintains usability and function across markets.
7. Ongoing Updates: As software evolves, maintaining localization for updates, new features, and bug fixes becomes a continuous process.

Overcoming Localization Challenges

• Cultural Adaptation: Beyond language, colors, symbols, and even numbers can carry different meanings across cultures. What works in the US may be offensive or confusing in Japan or Brazil.
• Legal Requirements: In some countries, like France and Canada, there are strict laws about language use in digital products. Understanding and adhering to these requirements is crucial to avoid legal issues.
• Time Zone, Date, and Number Formatting: Localization must account for differences in how dates, times, and numbers are displayed. For instance, 09/15/2024 in the US is understood as September 15, 2024, but in much of the world, it would be read as 15 September 2024.

Take Your Software Global with Confidence

Is your software ready for the world stage?

Seamless localization ensures that your product transcends language and cultural barriers, delivering an intuitive experience to users everywhere.

Don’t let language limitations hold back your software’s potential.

Get in touch with BeTranslated today and unlock your global success!

Together, we’ll help you craft a localized product that resonates with audiences across the globe.

FAQs

1. What’s the difference between translation and localization? Translation focuses on converting text between languages, while localization adapts the entire user experience, including design, date formats, and cultural nuances.
2. Can machine translation alone handle software localization? No. While machine translation can speed up the process, human translators are essential to refine language for context, meaning, and cultural accuracy.
3. How do long words in languages like German affect localization? Long words can cause issues with UI design, especially if they don’t fit into buttons or menus. Text expansion must be considered when designing layouts.
4. How does localization handle languages with different scripts like Arabic or Chinese? Localization adjusts the layout, encoding, and fonts to ensure these languages display correctly without breaking the software’s functionality.
5. What file formats should be considered for localization? Common file formats include .xml, .json, .po, .resx, .html, .yml, and .xliff, depending on the platform and coding environment.