How To Prepare App For Localization
By: Hassan Ahmed Posted on Fri, 30-07-2021
Diffused territories, integrated cultures, and interdependent economies have brought the world nations much closer than they were ever before. Once divided by borders, seas, and massive terrains, communities have now become part of the global village. The Internet has brought the entire world inside the palm of a human being and every human activity conceivable under the click of a single button.
Along with integration, opportunities to expand into the global markets have been ameliorated. Businesses are endeavoring to penetrate foreign markets. And one of the most popular ways is via Mobile Applications. Use of the internet on PCs may be restricted to companies, offices, or certain households. However, smartphones are in the hands of every individual, regardless of age, sex, income status, education, or employment status. Organizations have been able to fathom the fact that mobile phones cater to a bigger market.
It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to proclaim that there is an app for almost every human activity. From organizing your workout routines to counting your calorie intakes. And from reviewing religious articles, studies while listening to verses from Holy books to investing in cryptocurrency, almost every possible human interest can be fulfilled vis-a-vis mobile application. There are apps now that have reduced human efforts and made daily activities and hobbies very convenient. Companies have been able to understand that.
Businesses know that if they have a successful application in their home country, there’s a high probability that it would work well with the rest of the world as well. Hence, localizing your mobile application is potentially a very profitable endeavor. But the hiccup is that people do not know how to prepare their application for localization.
In this article, we will try our best to make that process easier for you. Let’s take a look at some important aspects that you need to keep in mind when you are planning to localize your mobile application.
1. Structuring Your Application
If you want to introduce your application to a global audience vis-a-vis localization, the foremost thing to do is to structure your application’s code. There are various tools available that give you the option to localize your application. For instance, Apple supports tools such as Unicode and Xcode11 that allow you to prepare your application to handle various languages for different regions. This is very helpful and functional because most of the time, people do not know which languages they should translate into. These inbuilt tools help you to add a language before you even decide which one to opt for.
2. Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy
Businesses spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on marketing research and development. The reason behind this expenditure is to deeply understand the needs and wants of the consumers. The consumer mind is a very complicated thing. It is influenced by many factors. For instance, a financially well-off individual male might have relatively different needs and wants as compared to a middle-class working male. Nonetheless, it is the responsibility of the marketers to understand those needs and then create a product that fulfills that need.
Similarly, when you are targeting different regional markets, they are all not the same. You have to ensure that your application meets the needs and wants of people. Thereby, localize your application for a market that is similar in attributes to a previous market that you were successful in with your application.
3. Use of App Analytics
Another important aspect that needs to be discussed here is that if you decide to offer your application to a global audience but have not decided to localize it for a specific region, then the use of analytics can be really helpful in this scenario. So what you can do is to look for certain performance metrics that can help you analyze the overall performance of your application. And see if it’s even attracting people who live in that specific region you have localized for. Some examples of those key metrics may include; the Product Page Usage and Views, Sales of App Units that are filtered vis-a-vis specific regions. Moreover, ‘customer traffic’ and ‘conversion’ are two key metrics that can help you make specific changes meanwhile making your business processes more efficient.
4. Ensuring Compatibility
Until and unless your mobile application supports other symbols systems besides the languages, your goal will not be achieved. Moreover, you have to ensure that the keyboard layout is buttressed by the application you are using. Regardless of the language, you are translating into, whether German or Hindi, make sure that your application supports the new changes in fonts and input methods. Since the market is never static, but rather dynamic, your app will always be technically prepared even if you plan to expand your app to other foreign markets. Thereby, opting for the traditional and conventional input methods will do you more harm than good. Because they won’t be compatible with languages such as Korean or Chinese. Typical English input methods have certain characters that become obscure even post localization. Henceforth, using Unicode encoding for your localizable strings from the beginning will be able to convert every text file.
5. Translation Management Systems
People often disregard the importance of management systems when it comes to translated and localized content. The preconceived notion over here is that the additional cost of subscribing to a translation management system is not worth it. This narrative can never be more wrong. TMS allows you to store datasets that can be used in the future. You will not have to repeat the entire process of localization every time you choose to do translations for companies. Just keep this in mind; your future savings will be secured if you embed a Translation Management System in your localization process. However, if you want guidance to decide which TMS is better for you, try considering factors such as; do the TMS has a well-established and documented Application Programming Interface. Moreover, is the Command Line Interface tool efficient and documented as well. But other than these two does the TMS buttress multiple formats for various types of frameworks? If the answer is in the affirmative, you can consider integrating the Translation Management system (TMS).
Conclusion:
Products and services become obsolete if they do not change with time. There was a time when people used DVD players, Telephones with Rotary Dial, and Walkmen. But now people have moved on from these products and have started to use the new marvels of technological innovation. Similarly, if businesses want to grow and not become obsolete, they need to penetrate foreign markets. And the best way to do this is to go for localization.
Many people get intimidated by the lengthy process that localization demands in the preparation of translating mobile applications. On the contrary, if you are following a proper structure and a well sought out methodology, this process would become more convenient. All you have to do is that before you take the initiative to integrate app localization, ensure that you have all the required tools and services needed for translation.
Then plan a comprehensive customer-driven marketing strategy in which you analyze the demographics of your target market. Moreover, you can also use the help of analytical tools, meanwhile ensuring compatibility with your software. But also make sure that you incorporate a Translation Management System while performing localization. This will bring more structure to your work, will decrease the budget for future projects, and will also ameliorate your overall efficiency and effectiveness.
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