Upcoming Event Announcement: We are presenting "Quick Wins: Configuration Management for Web Environments" at PNSQC's fall conference, in Portland Oregon, October 15th to 18th, 2001. http://www.pnsqc.org/

Localization Series

Localization and Internationalization

This pair of articles about localization is divided in two parts: the first article is related to marketing while the second article is focused on testing. Although the main focus of the article is localization, internationalization is also mentioned since they are strongly related.

First of all, there are two concepts that need to be defined: internationalization and localization. Internationalization covers generic coding and design issues while localization involves translating and customizing a product for a specific market. As examples: when you are able to change the keyboard settings to Japanese while you use a US version of Windows it is an internalization issue. Ensuring the size of the dialog boxes fit properly in a German application is a localization issue.
 

Internationalization - Why internationalize your product?

Why would you invest additional resources, time and money to internationalize your applications? Internationalization provides a means for:

• Possible use of your applications in other locales even without translation of messages, documentation and User Interface elements;
• Reduced time and cost for localization resulting in higher revenues and profits from other markets (no lost revenues due to lag between domestic and localized applications);
• A single source code base for your domestic and all localized applications (instead of potentially as many code bases as localizations) which makes maintenance of your code base simpler;
• Improved code architecture of your source code baseline and consistency to standards.

During the product planning phase, when describing internationalization issues, (such as which features will be removed or customized for different editions) feature's behaviors that are locale-sensitive have to be addressed. It's important to be familiar with foreign languages and typical locale-specific information typical as postal codes, string sort orders, business letter formats, punctuation rules, paper size, currency, number formats, numeric separators and so on must be considered at this point.

Some simple examples are:

• The symbol # is not universal for "number". No is also common.
• A negative number isn't preceded by a dash in all languages; bracketing conventions for negatives numbers vary, too.
• Money symbols might go before or after the monetary amount.

Localization - Why localize your application?

The international software market has become more and more
important for software companies. Some of the reasons are:

• Many U.S. software companies obtain more than half of their revenues and profits from international sales;
• Users in general prefer an application which works in their language and cultural environment;
• The freedom of exchange between countries, and the growth of worldwide networks like the Internet has raised the awareness and computer literacy in many countries;
• The actual cost of localization, when correctly done, is usually a minor cost component when seen over the lifetime of the product.

Users expect localized software to support the same basic set of features as the native language edition of the product does, and of course to have the same level of quality. They also expect different language editions to interact smoothly with one another, within the same language or across all languages. If files are unreadable from one language edition to the next, or if they convert with numerous errors, international users become frustrated.

Localization can be performed on several levels, depending on the target market and the application type. An analysis of how much time and money will be spent in the localization process versus the potential return needs to be done by the company before any localization process is started. Some companies may even decide not to localize their products if the market is too small or there is no competition. But if the target market has limited knowledge of English or the market is very competitive, the company may decide for a full or partial localization.

Below is a listing of the different levels of localization:

1. Translation of documentation and packaging only
2. Translation software menus and dialogs
3. Enabling the code
4. Translation of online help, tutorials and README files
5. Support for locale-specific hardware
6. Customized features for specific locale

The first two options listed above involve little development cost. The next level, enabling the code, which allows the customer to create documents in their own language even if the user interface is not localized, involves no translation cost but involves some development cost since the code that handles input, layout, editing and printing must be changed. The last three levels represent more costs, since translation or even development of special piece of code is required.

When localizing an application, it is important to consider the user interface design and the feature set for each language edition of a product. They might not be exactly the same. Whoever is writing the specifications needs to know in advance which languages and locales the final product is targeting and how much of each language edition will actually be translated.

If localization and/or internationalization issues are taken in account during the initial feature specification and design stages it helps to maximize the quality of all language editions of the product while minimizing the amount of time and money invested.

Another advantage to describing the product features in detail is that there is the up front opportunity to address other factors that may affect product ship dates, such as staffing requirements and the deadlines for coding, translation, and testing.

Cultural and Market Issues

Considerations about culture and market are very important since what is natural for one culture may be offensive in another. For example hand gestures, representation of animals, religions, even mythological symbols might be misinterpreted or offend users in another country. Also, images of sports equipment, national monuments or even sounds and colors that are familiar in some culture might be unfamiliar in other. This kind of information is sometimes hard to find, so it's important that sufficient amount of research on the target country is performed.

Windows and Macintosh Globalization Resources

For a great resource on globalization and localization, we recommend Microsoft's Global Development site at http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/.  In particular, check out the Step-by-step guide to globalization of Windows software at http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/wrguide/wrguide.asp

If you're planning to localize Macintosh applications, check the http://developer.apple.com/technotes/ov/ov_20.html