Localization Testing in the Real World
- 1. Localization Testing in the Real World Ensure new market launches go off without a hitch Maria Mondragon Solutions Consultant Jonathan Maclennan Director of Enterprise Sales Phil Slocum Solution Delivery Manager
- 2. BEFORE WE GET STARTED… The webinar will last approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. We will send you a link to the recording as well as this slide deck. If you tweet during the webinar, feel free to mention @Applause.
- 3. Presenters of This Session 3 Phil Slocum Solution Delivery Manager Maria Mondragon Solutions Consultant Jonathan Maclennan Director of Enterprise Sales
- 4. 7,000 languages in the world 55% percentage of consumers who only buy products from websites with information in their own language 3 localization tester requirements: • native language fluency • understand digital products • reside in the region Three Key Numbers
- 5. What Are These Things Called?
- 6. More Than Translation ALTERNATIVE MEANINGS English: Gift=present Swedish: Gift=married DATE FORMAT U.S.: month-day-year China: year-month-day NUMBERS U.S.: 1,025.7 Germany: 1.025,7 CURRENCY U.S.: ($127.54) Netherlands: 127,54 € TEXT TRUNCATION English: Have a nice day! German: Ich wünsche Ihnen einen schö (If there are character limitations, the red translated text will be cut off, resulting in a truncated string) COLOR MEANINGS U.S.: Red = danger Asia: Red = celebratory Other examples: non-translated text, inconsistent terminology, culturally inappropriate text/graphics, writing direction, telephone number format, systems of measurement.
- 7. Too Fast, Too Furious 7
- 8. Challenges • Language comprehension. Difficult to source people that know and understand cultural differences. • In-house constraints. Lack of bandwidth to manage initiatives. • Out-of-context translations. Not seeing the final product can introduce surprises. • Bias. Translation testers can introduce subjectivity, which can lead to biased reviews. Localization Testing Challenges 8
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- 11. • Double-blind validation ensures accurate results • Example: wicked (English) • Example: colectivo (Spanish) • Remediation suggestion when possible. • Need more than one option to decide. • Use a neutral party as a tiebreaker. • Applause uses test engineers. Validating Localization Testing Results 11
- 12. Why Testing In Production Isn’t Enough • Negative impact on brand reputation. • Fixes are too expensive. • Introduces potential delay. • Loss of revenue. • Lack of customer trust, organizational confidence in future launches. 12
- 13. Dynamic Content and Scale • Prioritize markets. • Understand the launch strategy. • Rollout • Timeline • Availability • Define the remediation window. • Establish and maintain best practices.
- 18. Emerging and New Markets • APAC and LatinAmerica are hot markets. • Lots of untapped potential. • Lack of time and resources, especially in smaller markets. • Zero visibility into in-market customer flows, expectations. • Hard to verify local regulations, restrictions. • Phased/soft launches are common. • Start small, fail fast.
- 19. 19 Working with Applause • Leveraging our global community, we source and gather a group of participants in specific locations that are native speakers and understand the culture. • Our fully managed service includes access to a team that will manage all groups of testers and triage all relevant information for our customers. • Our in-market testers are looking at the localized product as a whole, and see the translations in context.This allows them to see truncations, and contextual mistranslations, as well as any strings that were accidentally not sent to translation. • Our testers are an independent third party, looking at the product with a fresh pair of eyes.
- 20. Key Takeaways • Align testing with how your customers think and operate. • If you can’t adapt, your competition will. • Think outside your own walls.
- 23. Q&A
- 24. Localization is part of customer experience 24 • In today’s world, software is at the forefront of almost every customer experience making it easier than ever to operate as a global brand. • A global consumer base brings various demands and a one-product-fits-all approach is not sufficient. • To operate on a global scale, localization is critical to ensure your products and applications meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market. • Localization testing requires domain expertise and specialized skills and can often be an expensive process.