How to translate software: Your ultimate guide to localization in 2024

With so many software companies going global, it's more important than ever for you to think about how you’re going to localize software right from the start of your project.

Users want a good experience that meets their cultural and language expectations. So, high quality translations are no longer just nice to have. They're a necessity if you want to stay competitive.

But what exactly is software localization? And what does it take to get your product ready for the global market? In this article, we’ll answer these questions and the ones you didn't know you had. Let's dive in!

Software localization is the process of making a software product ready for use in another culture or market. Localization comes after globalization and internationalization.

• Globalization: overarching strategy for entering and succeeding in global markets, from market research and target audience analysis to localization.

• Internationalization: process of making engineering, design and copywriting decisions to later make it easier to localize a product.

• Localization: process of making a software product ready for use in another culture or market, from translation to customizing the UX for locale-specific preferences.

Software translation is part of the localization process. It refers to converting text to another language.

This is usually done in translation management systems (like Smartcat) using translation tools and automated translations. These tools, including computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, enhance the efficiency and quality of the translation process.

They let you combine AI translation and glossaries with a professional human translator for translation quality assurance.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that software localization starts when development in the initial language finishes. But if you wait until then to start thinking about localization, you've made a serious mistake.

Software companies need to start thinking about localization at the initial development stage. We'll show you why in this article and help you get started.

There are many reasons to localize your software product. Here are just a few:

• Localization will open up new sales for your product. According to Yahoo! Finance, the global software market is expected to grow by $250.35 billion by 2025, while just 17% of the world’s population speak English.

• Localization can improve the user experience of your customers. According to a study by Common Sense Advisory, 76% of consumers say they're more likely to buy a product that's available in their own language.

• Localization can help you find unexpected success. Sometimes, a product that isn’t successful in its home market can go on to be a huge hit elsewhere.

To ensure successful software localization, you need a cloud-based translation management system (TMS) like Smartcat and a strong team of people who understand the process from all angles.

Your TMS will bring together all the separate tools you need in one place. That makes it easy to manage and automate the localization process.

Here's a list of the software localization tools you'll need (all of which are available in Smartcat).

• Integration with content management systems and software repos to be able to connect with the original content.

• Support for multiple file formats and major programming languages to accommodate the needs of your translation projects.

• Integration with translation memories, translation glossaries and AI translation with real time translation. Translate quickly and consistently while controlling cost.

• Automated error checking and quality assurance to help maintain high translation quality by catching errors early.

• Cooperation and automated project management features to assign work to translators or send notifications when a task is completed. This keeps everything flowing smoothly.

• Easy access to find new vendors who offer professional translation services for your localization process. Choose freelancers from the 500,000-strong integrated Smartcat marketplace.

• Integrated payment automation features to save time and admin hassle.

Software localization is a complex process. So, to ensure success, you need a strong team made up of people who understand the process. Here’s an overview of the main roles involved.

• Project manager: This person coordinates the localization process from start to finish. They work with the client to establish requirements, manage translation projects with translators and developers, and make sure deadlines are met.

• Translators: Look for qualified translators with experience in software localization. Consider working with different translators for different domains, for example, a technical translator for user interface texts and a marketing translator for app store listings.

• Editors and proofreaders: These are often also translators. Their role is to review AI translations and human translations to make sure they're accurate, they follow terminology rules and they read well. Human quality assurance will be pivotal in helping to ensure your product's success in the new market.

• Linguistic quality testers: These team members run the localized software through a series of tests to make sure that everything is working correctly and that the translations are satisfactory.

• Developers and DevOps: These people make sure the localization process is smoothly integrated into the software development process. This might involve working with localization experts to establish requirements, setting up continuous localization workflows, and setting up integrations with software repos.

Localizing a software product involves more than just translating the text into another language. Here are the five key steps:

Internationalization is the first step in software localization. It usually happens early on in the product development cycle. It involves making engineering, design and copywriting decisions that will make it easier to localize the product later on.

For example, internationalization might involve using Unicode, or designing user interface elements that can be easily translated without affecting their layout or functionality.

Internalization also relates to copywriting. If your copy is full of local jargon and cultural references, it’ll be much harder (and more expensive) to translate. Writing plainly will make the translation process much easier. So, this is key if you want to make your product localization-friendly.

Working in Smartcat, you’ll have the choice whether to use our secure AI translation or work directly with a professional translator.

In most cases, our clients use a combination of the two. AI translation can help produce the first draft more cheaply. Then, human translators act as reviewers to improve the initial translation and make sure the software translation contains your preferred terminology and will make sense in the new culture.

This involves adapting the user interface and user experience to another culture. This could mean translating text elements such as labels and error messages, but also making sure that the overall layout and design of the user interface makes sense to users in the target market.

Developers with no prior experience in localization will sometimes hard-code things such as currency symbols or date formats into their software. This can make localizing the product difficult and expensive later on.

To avoid this, try to educate yourself and your team about the importance of internationalization early on in the product development cycle.

This is the process of adapting the content to reflect cultural differences. It might involve changing references to local landmarks or celebrities, or even rewriting parts to make sure that they don’t offend local users.

For example, a software product designed for use in Western markets might need to be adapted for use in Asian markets, where attitudes to things such as privacy and security are often quite different.

Cultural adaptation is a complex process that requires a deep understanding of the target market. It’s important to work not just with translators, but also localization experts who can help you navigate cultural nuances. These professionals will help you make sure your product works well in the new market.

Translation is a unique service in that the customer doesn’t always have the ability to check the quality of the end product. This is why it’s important to have a process in place for linguistic quality assurance, also known as linguistic testing.

Linguistic testing involves running the localized software through a series of tests to make sure it functions correctly and that the translations are accurate and fit the context.

This might involve testing aspects like the layout of the user interface or checking whether error messages are displayed correctly and translated accurately.

Software engineers can do some of these tests, such as detecting and replacing chunks of untranslated text. Others, however, will require manual testing by native speakers of the target language, such as checking symbols or cultural references.

This is why it’s important to have access to a network of professional linguists who can help you test your localized software.

There are two main approaches to software localization: continuous localization and waterfall localization.

Waterfall localization is the conventional approach where localization takes place all in one go, usually at the end of the development cycle. This can be a good option if you want more control over the process and if you’re working with a limited budget.

However, waterfall localization has significant drawbacks. The most important one is that it can take much longer to get your product to market (weeks or even months). This is because all the content has to be translated at once, which can be very time-consuming and expensive.

The other main drawback is that it can be more difficult to catch errors and mistakes as there are fewer opportunities for feedback and iterations. Once the content has been translated, it can be very difficult and expensive to make changes.

Continuous localization is an agile approach where translation takes place all the time, as content is added. This means you can get your product to market much faster (sometimes even on the same day).

Continuous localization has the advantage of being more flexible and iterative: You can make changes to the content as you go. This means there’s a lower chance of errors and mistakes.

Keep in mind, though, that continuous localization can be harder to manage and coordinate. This is because it requires a tech-savvy localization team that’s comfortable working in an agile environment. You also need tech tools that are up to the task, though Smartcat has your back there.

In the long run, continuous localization is a more efficient and cost-effective way to localize your software product. This is especially true if you’ve already adopted an agile development process.

Here are some of the most common challenges that businesses face when they localize a software product. We'll show you how you can overcome them or avoid them all together.

The challenge: Companies that have never done software localization sometimes make the mistake of thinking that localization is easy. They look at it as something you can just “add on” at the end. This is a recipe for disaster. Even if the software gets to market, it'll probably fail because it won't be properly localized.

The solution: Inform yourself and all other decision-makers. Speak to localization experts before you embark on your software development project. Make sure all decision-makers understand the complexity of software localization.

The challenge: Your software production pipeline consists of a dozen different stages. Each of them often takes longer than you had anticipated. By the time you reach localization (often the last stage in the process) you might be feeling the pressure to get things done as quickly as possible.

But trying to rush things will only lead to errors and frustration on both sides.

The solution: Plan ahead and give yourself enough time for the localization process. Ideally, adopt continuous localization. This is where translations are done incrementally as new content is added, rather than all at once at the end of the development cycle. It’ll help you avoid last-minute rushes and get your product to market faster.

The challenge: You've figured out how localization works and created a process that includes rules and guidance for your team to follow at every step. Your team, however, does whatever they want.

The solution: Localization is a complex process and people who've only ever worked in one language can't imagine the challenges involved in doing it successfully. Start with a simple training session to make sure everyone on your team understands the fundamentals. Show them why the guidance matters.

The challenge: Localization requires significant coordination between team members. It’s difficult to keep track of everything. Sourcing and paying vendors can be time-consuming and problematic. Controlling terminology use, consistency and general quality is complicated and only gets harder over time the more content you generate.

The solution: Use the Smartcat translation management system. It’ll help you streamline all these processes with a translation workflow that simplifies everything from day one. You’ll be able to carry out consistent quality assurance across multiple languages. You’ll also be able to find and take advantage of all the work done in the past through translation memory access.

The challenge: What seemed easy and obvious at the start isn't as clear once your translation projects are underway. Neural machine translation will only get you so far. Translating software turns out to be much harder than you thought.

The solution: Evaluate the complexity of your software and its translation requirements in the preparatory phase. This includes understanding the technical aspects and the volume of content that needs to be translated.

The challenge: Jargon and buzzwords, especially newer ones (think “disrupt” or “pivot”), can be exceptionally difficult to translate. You may end up with a translation that's wrong or that doesn’t make sense.

The solution: Train your copywriters to keep translation in mind. They should avoid using jargon and idioms in the original text as much as possible.

The workaround: If you have to use a bit of jargon, make sure to provide clear definitions and context so that translators can understand what you mean. Do this through glossaries in your Smartcat TMS (more on those below).

The challenge: Imagine you’re a translator, and you come across different terms being used to describe the same concept in the original text. What do you do? Do you just pick one and go with it? Do you translate each one separately? Do you reach out to the client for clarification and risk bothering them?

Inconsistencies in the original text complicate the translation process and can lead to the same inconsistencies and errors in the final translation. The mistakes multiply and it gets harder to put them right.

The solution: Start out by making a glossary with a set of standard terms that everyone on your team (from developers and designers to copywriters and translators) can use. Find out how to do this with our translation glossary guide.

The workaround: If you didn't do this at the start, have a native-language speaker read through the original text and extract standard terms. Use this list to create translation glossaries.

The challenge: Translators can’t always tell what you mean just by looking at a word written on a button, for example. Sometimes, they might not even be able to see whether it’s a button or, say, a title on a form.

The solution: Give as much context as possible when you send out a text for translation. In Smartcat, you can do this by adding comments, attaching screenshots, and providing links to relevant documentation. Naming variables in a meaningful way is also a good idea.

If you have a contact person to support your translators and want them to get in touch with queries, make this clear to them.

The challenge: Different languages use different numbers of characters and words. These inconsistencies can be aggravated when working with languages with different alphabets.

When translating user interface text, it's common to find that the translated text doesn't fit in the allotted space. If it fits, it might be placed in an awkward position that makes the user interface look too cluttered or too empty.

The solution: Identify your target languages and regions during the preparation stage. Consider the length of your original text and translated text when you design the user interface. Perhaps make certain rules for copywriters to follow and make sure they understand why the rules matter.

The Smartcat TMS has an integration with the Figma translation plugin. This can be a really helpful way to catch these kinds of issues early on.

You can trial Smartcat for free to see all our features for yourself. Our sales team will also be pleased to offer you a demo and any help you may need in starting your localization journey.