Today, hardly anyone would deny that developing and implementing a web store or a business automation program makes practical sense. Any manufacturer strives to be the first and the best, and the ultimate goal is to make a profit.

It’s no secret that there are two ways of increasing profit: by reducing expenditures or by increasing revenue. As for expenditures, the cost of software development services is the most obvious expense. These services can save money but, unfortunately, they can also lead to unexpected expenditures. Many companies are eager to launch their software products, believing that one global language will be enough to make the interface usable. This language is typically English.

This is exactly where unexpected expenditures may take you by surprise. The only criterion for increasing revenue is the number of customers who will not only want to buy the product at some point but also be comfortable using it for a long time. When the manufacturer realizes that one major factor affecting the user’s comfort is displaying content in the user’s preferred language, they will have many tasks to address, and not only having the software translated into other languages.

One of the most challenging tasks will be software localization, as different countries tend to use different date formats and units of measurement and languages differ in terms of word order and text direction as well as grammatical and semantic categories. One critical consideration is that the same sentence expressed in different languages will include a different number of words and, therefore, characters.

Other things to consider include units of currency, length, mass, temperature, etc.

All too often, if translation and localization steps are not incorporated into the development process, the sizes of buttons and other fields of the interface will be determined by the word length specific to the original interface language. Imagine: once the translation is complete, you realize that button labels (which exist in any interface) require a smaller font size, words need to be broken into multiple lines, or the buttons’ size and position must be changed altogether but there is insufficient space on the interface display screen. Inevitably, this will result in wholesale changes in the display order, sizes, and other parameters of the other elements.

At this point, the software developers’ service calculations might come as a surprise, unless all of these needs are anticipated and managed at an early development stage — something you definitely could and should do. Ensure that content localization is performed in advance, setting and communicating all the necessary parameters and requirements to the developers and translators.

By using Kenaz Translation Agency, you will not only get a high-quality localized product but also save time and money. We work with all file types developers use. You won’t need to manually copy the text to be translated into a Word or Excel file and then manually paste it back into the code. You need only send us the resource files in their original format (.po, .resx, .xliff, etc.) and we will extract the text to be translated and then return the translated files in the same original format, which will help ensure error-free data mapping. In addition, we will analyze the text and identify the number of repetitions or similar fragments so that you won’t incur any extra costs.

One important, distinctive feature of software localization is a lack of context when text content is simply translated, as software interfaces typically involve a set of disjointed phrases with occasional sentences and, sometimes, individual words. This is why localization testing is a necessary final stage of the process that occurs after software translation and the creation of a localized version of the program. For more information on localization testing, see our article.

Software Localization Steps

How to Choose Languages and How Much Does Software Localization Cost?

Your language portfolio should align with the company’s global development strategy. However, there are nine major languages spoken by the vast majority of people: English, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Italian, and Korean.

Translation cost depends on the volume of the user interface, i.e., the number of words for translation, as well as the source text language and the target language.

Using native speakers of the target language to complete the translation is an industry standard, which is why, when planning a global app release, it makes sense to initially create and upload the content in one of the global languages (typically, English). By doing so, you can avoid the toil and trouble of trying to find translators working with rare language combinations as well as the extra expenses incurred by rare language combinations typically being more expensive. It is much easier to find a competent English-to-Portuguese translator than a Russian-to-Portuguese translator.

If it seems wise to try to save money by accepting the offers of those willing to translate your content from Ukrainian or Russian into German or French for a low price, it is not, as tempting as such offers might seem. The target audience of your content will not be French-speaking Ukrainians, but French people for whom French is the native language. To ensure that the text feels as natural as possible to the app users for whom the target language is their mother tongue, the translation should be completed by native speakers. Imagine the pool of English-speaking French translators compared with French translators who know Ukrainian or even Russian at an expert level. The difference in the number of specialists, their experience, and pricing will be staggering.