Localization toolkit 2 by Kevin Bonder

Brands & Localization Drive Global Brand Engagement

Building a Well-Localized web experience 2 What is Localization?

Understanding Cultural Differences

What is localization and how can it increase a brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s value?

How do we measure cultural preferences?

translating vs localizing text How do you truly localize language and content?

Localizing User Experience

Balancing Localization with Existing Branding Concepts

How to Accomplish Localization: What Resources Are Available?

going forth

What cultural preferences impact user experience?

How do you maintain brand integrity in global markets?

What resources are available for design, translation, and development?

brands and localization

Building a Well-Localized Web Experience Increasingly, localization

has become a significant element of long-term, global branding strategies. For Fortune 500 companies, the driving motivators for translating content are to meet local customer expectations, improve customer service, maintain or increase brand value, reach more customers in markets where they already have a presence, and address local market regulations. 1 Localization requires companies to strike a balance between the preferences of a specific locale, brand identity, and enough return on investment to ensure a sustainable branding effort. Brand managers must understand what true localization is, know the resources available, and leverage those resources to streamline and manage the whole process. These steps will help ensure the company is reaching the target demographic and receiving ample response and return.

Top reasons Fortune 500 companies translate content 1 79.49%

say they do it to meet local customer expectations.

71.43%

say they do it to reach more customers in markets where they already compete.

71.43%

say they do it to maintain or increase the value of the brand.

69.39%

say they do it to meet local regulatory or legal requirements.

1 Common Sense Advisory, “Translation at Fortune 500 companies” (http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/AbstractView.aspx?ArticleID=2855)

Next: What is Localization?

brands and localization

Localization “describes the process of adapting a product to a specific language or culture so that it seems natural to that particular region.” 1

What is Localization? True localization extends beyond simple translation to include “language, culture, customs, technical and other characteristics of the target locale.” 2 While globalization represents growth through access to international markets, localization emphasizes specificity and relevance to a particular market. The end goal is to make a product or service appear as if it had been developed specifically in and for the local market and allow a company to communicate effectively with international consumers and users. 1,2 GALA, “What is Localization?” (http://www.gala-global.org/view/terminology?page=5)

From a strategic perspective, there is incredible potential for growth into new markets. On the other side of the coin, there is also considerable risk. Forays into global markets must be strategic, well planned, and executed with the local user in mind. Whether a user is in the United States, Asia, or Europe (and even countries or sub-regions within these areas) will influence the way they perceive and interact with the brand.

Localization is now seen as a significant, integral part of a global brand strategy. Global Markets, Local Brands Of the top 20 countries on the Internet, many have significant differentials between the number of Internet users and actual population size. China, India, and Continued on next page ➢

branding and localization

Brazil, for example, are all ranked within the top five populations (as of 2010), but the number of users is less than 40% of each of their respective populations (as opposed to the United States’ 78%) 1. Each of these markets has huge potential for growth! Localization allows a company greater access to international markets while pr0tecting brand image and preserving brand equity. By offering consumers an experience in their preferred language that is both sensitive and relevant to the local culture, localization accomplishes several key e-branding strategies in the global market. Localizing a brand: • Builds a community of users (or potential users) within a region or who share language and culture • Expands accessibility and connectivity for global consumers • Customizes the brand for the target market • Offers a better consumer experience and more convenience • Furthers communication between the brand and international consumers 2 1 Pingdom, “The top 20 countries on the Internet and what the future might bring” (http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/07/27/top-20-countries-on-the-internet/) 2 Ibeh, Kevin I. N.; Ying Luo; Keith Dinnie. “E-branding strategies of

Next: Understanding Cultural Differences

In addition to increasing market share, localization preserves brand integrity. Companies can use brand assets — loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand associations — to access or maintain their position in global markets. Doing so both protects and leverages brand equity. Localization is an especially important strategy for brands that also embody a lifestyle or an experience. For a brand that defines its consumer demographic as having forwardthinking and progressive values, these same values may be perceived in another country as established, traditional, and steadfast. HSBC’s “Different Values” campaign clearly illustrates that “people value things in very different ways.” 3 One of the advertisements from the campaign includes two different images of tattoos: two pairs of hands and feet tattooed with henna, captioned “traditional;” and a man’s tattooed shoulder, captioned “trendy.”

internet companies: Some preliminary insights from the UK,” Journal of Brand Management. June 2005, Vol. 12, Issue 5, (355-373). 3 HSBC, October 20, 2008, “HSBC Launches “Different Values” Advertising Campaign As The Largest Single Issue Advertiser In New York Magazine History” (http://www.hsbcusa.com/ourcompany/pressroom/2008/news_10292008_hsbc_ campaign.html)

brands and localization

In order to enter global markets successfully, brand builders must be aware that international markets carry their own distinctive sets of characteristics and must adapt to local tastes, cultures, and sensibilities.

Understanding Cultural Differences It is absolutely essential to do research in a specific market before localizing a brand to it. Some questions to address when starting your research may include: What are the defining characteristics of the culture? Which languages are spoken in the target locale? How is the brand perceived? What makes the brand relevant to local consumers?

It will also be helpful to find out which products, services, applications, or even features in particular have already been more widely adopted by the target market. Keep in mind that some applications, products, or features may also have less appeal in the target market. Knowing where a product or application is already being used can help to determine what markets to localize to first, and also possibly identify a potential dedicated community of users to consult across the different stages of the localization process. Sociologists, cultural and behavioral experts, and localization professionals have identified numerous dimensions for characterizing or measure culture and cultural values.

The most important of these dimensions include: • The amount of context used to communicate information • Comfort with risk or uncertainty • Perception of authority • Take on traditional gender roles • Time orientation • Technological development High context and low context refer to the level of information included implicitly or explicitly in brand messages. A low-context culture will prefer a message that is specific, to the point, and uses enough adequate language to “ensure that the listener receives the message Continued on next page ➢

brands and localization

Table 1: Dimensions of Culture in U.S., Germany, Sweden, China, and Japan 1 High context vs. Low context

Uncertainty Avoidance

Perception of Authority

Masculinity vs. Femininity

Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation

United States Low context

Medium level of uncertainty avoidance

Highly individualistic

Tendency toward masculine

Short-term orientation

Masculine: performance is highly emphasized from childhood

Short-term orientation

Feminine: value maintaining balance; emphasize compromise and cooperation

Short-term orientation

Germany Low context

High uncertainty avoidance; strong aversion to risk

Individual

Sweden Low context

Low uncertainty avoidance

Low power distance: society values equal rights and independence; Highly individualistic China

High context

Low uncertainty avoidance

High power distance; highly collectivist

Masculine: success oriented and driven

Long-term orientation

Strong tendency toward masculine

Long-term orientation

Japan High context

Very high uncertainty avoidance

1â&#x20AC;&#x192; Geert Hofstede (http://geert-hofstede.com)

Hierarchical, but meritocratic society

brands and localization

exactly as it was sent.” 1 A high-context culture will appreciate a shorter message that conveys information implicitly, through metaphor or symbols. Uncertainty avoidance refers to the way a society accepts that the future cannot be known. Cultures with a high level of uncertainty avoidance appreciate knowing the details and trust systematic processes whereas cultures with lower levels of uncertainty avoidance accept that they cannot control the future and are comfortable with just letting it happen. A culture’s perception of time includes both their orientation towards the past, present, or future and their orientation towards the long-term or the shortterm. Short-term oriented cultures tend to have a conventional, historical point of view, a deep respect for tradition, and a propensity for “keeping up with the Joneses”; long-term oriented cultures are characterized by persistence, perseverance, and tend to maintain a perspective of occupying a relatively small portion of space and time in the long history of mankind. 2 Power distance refers to the way members of a society view the unequal distribution of power in that society. Members of a society with low power distance see themselves as having agency and able to make decisions for themselves and others. Meritocratic societies, like Japan or the United States, have a lower power distance because they see success as attainable for anyone who works hard enough. 3 High power distance 1 Ahmed, Tanveer, Haralambos Mouratidis, David Preston. “Website Design and Localisation: A Comparison of Malaysia and Britain,” International Journal of Cyber Society and Education. March 2008, Vol. 1, No. 1 (3 -16). 2, 3 Geert Hofstede, (http://geert-hofstede.com)

Next: Translating versus Localizing Text

cultures are hierarchical and tend to be socially stratified. Individualism and collectivism is another aspect of a culture’s perception of authority. Individualistic societies place the emphasis on the nuclear family, an individual’s ability to make his/her own decisions and exercise control over choices made. Individualistic cultures also tend to be low-context cultures as well. Collectivist cultures tend to place the emphasis on family, community, and authority and tend also to be high-context cultures. 4 Cultures that tend toward the feminine side of the gender spectrum blur the lines between traditional gender roles, whereas cultures that have strong tendencies toward masculinity display traditional values of age, gender, and family. Masculine cultures place a higher value on competition, material goods, and an assertive nature, whereas feminine cultures emphasize exchange, support, and collaboration. Cultures that emphasize traditional gender roles tend to prefer web applications with more emphatic use of graphics and multimedia. 5 It is also important to understand the cultural relationship to technology: Do people tend to be early adopters? What role does technology play in day-to-day life? What technologies, software, programs, and search engines are do people have access to or tend to use most?

4 Ahmed, Tanveer, Haralambos Mouratidis, David Preston. “Website Design and Localisation: A Comparison of Malaysia and Britain,” International Journal of Cyber Society and Education. March 2008, Vol. 1, No. 1 (3 -16). 5 Dianne Cyr, “Localization of Web Design: An empirical comparison of German, Japanese, and U.S. Website Characteristics” (http://www.diannecyr.com/ cyr2004_weblocalization.pdf)

brands and localization

With localization, everything from web sites, home pages, landing pages, customer service, user manuals, even simple catalog copy, privacy policy, and user agreement statements can be translated into users’ native languages.

Communicating a brand’s message depends on effective, clear language. At the most basic level, localizing text begins with good translation. As the Internet diversifies linguistically, translation is becoming more and more valuable. This year, a company will be able to speak to 80% of the online community (that’s 80% of all potential users) by translating content to 11 languages.1 There are three methods of translation that can be used to convert sites and applications to the native languages of the international markets to which a company is localizing: professional translation, crowdsourced translation, and machine translation. Each can be used as stand-alone methods or they can be used in combination to address a company’s individual needs and the demands of various markets. When localizing, everything from web sites, home pages, landing pages, customer service, user manuals, to simple catalog copy, privacy policies, and user agreement statements can be translated into users’ native languages. Companies will benefit from integrating content development with the localization process from the beginning. Not only does this make for a more seamless final product, it also assimilates the development of a brand with the local market. 1 Chief Marketer, “5 Tips to keep your global website strategy on track” (http:// chiefmarketer.com/web-marketing/5-tips-keep-your-global-website-strategy-track)

Cultural preferences can also dictate what kind of language is used in the translation. Is the translation literal and explicit or symbolic and implied? This preference not only indicates that a brand’s message is better communicated through words, rather than images or symbols, but also that even the way it’s displayed (for example, in paragraph format rather than bullet-point form) will matter in the design of web applications. Localizing into new languages can offer additional technical challenges. Most of these considerations are relatively straightforward, and simply require that brand managers and developers of applications are aware of them. Localization often requires adaptations to the software writing system, keyboard layout, fonts, dates and calendars, time, monetary formats, names, addresses, and general layout. In-country developers, localization experts, even professional translators with localization experience can provide insight as to what changes need to be made to localize a web application into another region or language system. Most languages also have inherent linguistic features that do not exist in English. For example, Arabic and Continued on next page ➢

brands and localization

Figure 1: Examples of linguistic preferences 3

German United States – English

Preference for paragraph format

Direct, explicit message; shorter strings of text

JAPANESE

Arabic

Preference for bullet-point form

Right-to-left orientation, of words and sentences, images, and page layout

Hebrew are two languages in which verbs change based on the gender of the person described and the plurality of the subject. When Facebook localized to each of these languages, developers built a feature, called “dynamic explosion,” to detect the user’s gender and identify the corresponding translation. 1 Translators should be able to identify these linguistic differences and offer recommendations. Languages that are read right-to-left (like Hebrew and Arabic) use some of the same characters symbols (namely, punctuation marks and numbers) as languages that are read left-to-write. When there is a mix of characters from languages written in different directions, web applications have a difficult time detecting which direction to display the content. This right-toleft orientation should influence not only the design of the web application, but also the design of logos and other brand images.

1 Ghassan Haddad, “Facebook now available in Arabic and Hebrew” (https:// blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=59043607130)

Next: Localizing User Experience

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Access to Markets Appropriate language and translation will also ensure search engine optimization, a key factor in ensuring that users in target markets will be able to locate a web site. A web site may require additional keywords to encompass the various ways in which people search on a specific topic in a local market. Original phrases must also be translated carefully to match local search patterns. 2 Language service providers, professional translators (especially those with subject matter expertise), crowdsourced translators, or in-country staff are recommended because they will know which key phrases will direct internet users to the website. International SEO also requires marketers to know which search engines are commonly used in other locales, in order to determine whether to optimize a web site to be search engine specific as well.

2 Chief Marketer, “5 Tips to keep your global website strategy on track” (http:// chiefmarketer.com/web-marketing/5-tips-keep-your-global-website-strategytrack) 3 Dianne Cyr, “Localization of web design: An empirical comparison of German, Japanese, and U.S. website characteristics” (http://www.diannecyr.com/cyr2004_ weblocalization.pdf)

brands and localization

With web sites and applications, culture is most often embedded in the design and heavily influences user experience.

Localizing User Experience Cultures with a lower tolerance for ambiguity or higher aversion to risk, will not only prefer explicitly communicated messages, but also logical paths of navigation within the application. Applications developed for high-context cultures tend to use more visuals, images, and symbols. Brand messaging to these cultures can place more emphasis on metaphor, where identity is implied and a part of the contextual understanding, rather than on literal text. Cultural preferences towards masculinity or femininity also heavily influence the visual display of an application.

That being said, UI/UX can be very expensive, especially to maintain, once it’s in place. It takes increased time and resources to build and maintain complete, individual sites for each target locale. Even partially localized applications can require a lot in maintenance, as one change to the English can mean many changes rippled throughout translations, strings of code, and applications. 1 When thinking about localizing user 1 GALA, “Why Localize?” (http://www.gala-global.org/why-localize)

interfaces, ROI must be the driving factor. Many times, completely localized web applications require an entire in-market team to build and maintain, which is realistic only for companies with large marketing budgets. Even then, a company may still have difficulty supporting another whole team of staff. Continued on next page ➢

brands and localization

figure 2: Specific examples of cultural preferences in web design

malaysia Web applications are organized along axial lines of symmetry; Heavy use of symbols and seal to communicate authority; images denote collective identity and family. 1

China Internet users tend to prefer an application that is easy to use, but entertaining and visually appealing. united states Users respond well to applications that place the emphasis on the individual and the user’s scope of influence. 2

japan Visually-appealing websites that speak directly to gender roles. 3

germany Users prefer applications that are clean, functional, and easily navigated with a clear message. 3

1 Ahmed, Tanveer, Haralambos Mouratidis, David Preston. “Website design and localisation: A Comparison of Malaysia and Britain,” International Journal of Cyber Society and Education. March 2008, Vol. 1, No. 1 (3 -16). 2 Aaron Marcus, “Cross-cultural User-Experience Design” (http://wam.sachsmedia.tv/programm/keynote-a-marcus/) 3 E.F. Sheridan, “Cross-cultural Web Site Design: Considerations for developing and strategies for validating locale appropriate on-line content” (http://www.multilingual.com/articleDetail.php?id=595)

Next: Balancing Localization with Existing Branding Concepts

brands and localization

The challenge of growing a brand globally becomes finding the middle ground between adapting to local tastes and preserving the brand.

Balancing Localization with Existing Branding Concepts Companies must strike a balance between customizing their brand and products to the local market while ensuring the localized brand is consistent with the parent, and that the global brand is recognizable in every market. For one major British travel and entertainment comThe level of localization can range significantly from pany, localization is a part of a larger, global branding keeping a web site in English and barely acknowledgstrategy that is not just about penetrating local markets ing international traffic to staffing internal, localeworldwide: “… it is important that the content of each specific marketing and web teams for each target site has local significance… [but] consistent brandlocale. Locale-specific teams are unparalleled resources ing across the sites is vital for [the] company to build for localization. Not only are they expensive, they also 1 brand recognition on a truly international scale.” require a company’s organizational structure to support another team specifically dedicated to one market. Brands carry with them not just the logo or tagline, Barely localizing carries risk with it as well: conversion but also certain product attributes, consumer values or rates for English-only sites are significantly lower than personality, and an overall user experience. 2 It is, then, native-language sites, and failing to offer global maressential to understand what the brand represents kets even some level of customization may also reduce to the target market, what attracts international conbrand loyalty. Most consumers prefer to purchase in sumers, and how the local market’s perception of the their own language; and of consumers who do visit brand may imitate or differ from the original market in English-language web sites, only 25% regularly make which it was developed. Brand perception and penetrapurchases, largely due to incompatibility with currency tion in local markets worldwide can help inform global or purchasing options, but also because of users’ limbranding strategies, and can help a company deterited English ability and preference for native language mine which of their international growth strategies are applications. Most companies will fall somewhere in sustainable, or how they should be modified to make between these two poles on the localization spectrum. them sustainable. 1 Ibeh, Kevin I. N.; Ying Luo; Dinnie, Keith. “E-branding strategies of internet companies: Some preliminary insights from the UK,” Journal of Brand Management. Jun2005, Vol. 12 Issue 5, p355-373. 19p. 2 Rowley, J. (2004) “Online Branding,” Online Information Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 131-137.

Next: How to Accomplish Localization without Infinite Resources: What is Available?

brands and localization

There are a number of tools and resources available that simplify or streamline the process from start to finish.

How to Accomplish Localization: What Resources Are Available? Research from Limelight Networks reveals that resources are the biggest constraint for localizing companies, even those already managing multiple regional web sites.

For marketers, localization can be a daunting undertaking, requiring companies to commit a lot of time, staff, and organizational resources. According to U.S. marketing executives, the biggest challenges for web site globalization are: • Using multiple platforms to manage sites and content • Staffing or budget for creating regional content in local languages • Technical resources for building, maintaining, and enhancing regional sites • Staffing and budget for translating existing content to local languages 1 There are a number of tools and resources available that simplify or streamline the process from start to 1 eMarketer, “Marketers Prioritize a Globalized Digital Presence” (http://www. emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009293&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5 ed4)

finish, and across the different teams employed to design, translate, and test a localized web experience. Professional Translation The most common and traditional method of translation is to use professional translators for each language. Given the right resources, translators will have the ability to understand business goals and brand identity in order to deliver accurately localized content. Additionally, professional translation allows the manager of the localization process best control and oversight. Ideally, a professional translator should be a content area specialist with native language fluency. Traditionally, brands have used language service providers (LSP) or translation agencies to manage the translators and oversee the process. Similar to any other type of relationship with an external agency, the LSP manages the workflow and sends the final product Continued on next page ➢

brands and localization

back to the client for approval and deployment. LSPs typically bundle editing and review with translation to ensure the highest-quality results. Alternatively, brands can look to networks of freelance translators to find the right people for their project, which reduces project management fees and markedup translation costs. In fact, most LSPs use networks of freelance translators to achieve scale during busier periods. Using freelance translators, however, adds a layer of project management and review to ensure high-quality results and timely delivery of the final product. Companies who use freelance translators also need to source editors and reviewers. During localization, it is best to stick with the same team of professional translators for each language, or to make sure that the LSP is using the same team of translators, throughout the process. It will help ensure that the brand message remains consistent, especially as dynamic content needs to be maintained or updated for applications to remain current and relevant to the market. Crowdsourced Translation Crowdsourcing translation harnesses the power of online communities to translate content. It requires a company to identify an engaged community of users large enough to sustain interest and work fast enough and long enough to translate the needed content. Often, companies choose to localize to markets where their products are already being used, and it’s in these markets that finding enough volunteer translators to sustain a large translation project is viable. Crowdsourcing can offer companies an opportunity to preserve unique or niche brand identities as well. Twitter finds their community of translators a significant asset because of their prior experience with the domain as users. When translating the application into

German, they tapped an existing community of bilingual users to translate some domain-specific terms, like “unfollow,” which is neither a word in English nor has a direct translation in German. The community of translators helped develop the word “Entfolgen” (also not a word in German) to mean “unfollow,” which allowed Twitter to preserve the informal, playful tone from English to German. Crowdsourcing translation can be a particularly effective way to increase brand engagement, as it brings loyal consumers and users into the localization process and allows them to have a say in developing the brand. Brand managers must also be aware of the unique challenges that arise with crowdsourcing translation projects. Crowdsourcing involves managing a complex workflow with strings of content farmed out to discrete volunteer translators. Natural inconsistencies across the group can produce uneven voice and tone, potentially requiring review and correction by a senior curator or professional translator. Consistency in the representation of brand assets— names, descriptions, and general styles—is critical. Your crowd, no matter its size, includes both users and superusers – superusers are the most loyal and passionate brand enthusiasts. In crowdsourced translation, these users and superusers play different roles, from translation to editing to reviewing the localized content. Despite the complex workflow involved in crowdsourcing translation, volunteers can be utilized across all levels of the translation process, and technology can also ease some of the workflow challenges. A Blended Solution: Professional Translation Paired with Crowdsourced Translation It is possible to use professional, crowd and internal employees, or a combination of those three in the localization process. Blending translation methods allows a company to leverage the best attributes of Continued on next page ➢

brands and localization

each method and combine them on top of each other. The most common ways companies combine the three methods depending on their needs and capabilities of recruiting a crowd of volunteers or internal employees include: Translators

Editors

Reviewers

Crowd

Pro

Internal

Crowd

Pro

Super users

Pro

Super users & Internal

Crowd

Next: Technology

Internal

Machine Translation Compared to other approaches, machine translation is fast, less expensive, and extensible, making it easy for companies to translate large volumes of content. While machine translation offers many benefits in terms of its low cost and speed-to-market, it is not recommended for translating brand assets and important, consumerfacing applications. It is possible for translation programs to identify key words or phrases (think brand names and taglines, for example). Machine translation is not sensitive to style, tone of voice, and other ways that marketers embed the brand message into applications, however. It is better reserved as a last case scenario for large amounts of content that would be expensive to translate professionally, would take a long time, and would likely not be seen by a consumer.

brands and localization

Working with preferred partners, companies can automate workflow, as well as the actual processes of translation and development.

Technology

Over the past few years, translation management systems (TMS) and platforms have revolutionized the way companies manage the localization process by: • • • • •

Externalizing content from web application code Managing translation workflows Enabling translator communication Providing tools to translators Returning content in a way that it is ready to deploy

Working with preferred partners, companies can automate workflow, as well as the actual processes of translation and development. A properly utilized TMS will not only decrease costs, but also increase time-tomarket for international customers and improve the quality of the localized product. Content Extraction, Delivery & Synchronization A good TMS will have built-in functionality to extract content out of the code or CMS in its staging or development environment. This can happen in two ways:

1. The TMS extracts text by reading the HTML, JSON, Javascript and other web languages on the staging servers. 2. The development team sets up automated sending and receiving of localization files to the TMS. This is usually done with application programming interface (API) integration. Each of these methods allows content to be pushed easily into a translation workflow and ensures continuous synchronization, even if content is updated on a daily — or even hourly — basis. After content has been translated, it then needs to be delivered to the development team through a downloadable, localized file. The development team can then set up servers and infrastructure to deploy the localized site. The servers should be set up in close proximity to the target market for faster delivery of content. A TMS may have delivery capability, which bypasses the need to create a separate infrastructure for development. In this case, the TMS sits between the

brands and localization

user’s browser and the website’s original servers. When the localized site is called, the TMS replaces the original text with the translated text and serves it to the user’s browser. A TMS with delivery should have international server locations, be able to integrate into a Content Delivery Network — which accelerates delivery for heavy assets like images and video –, and pass internal safety tests. A more advanced system will be able to change UI/UX and design features to provide a more localized experience for the user. Translator Tools A good translator will go a long way, but a good translator with great tools will go much further. Translation management platforms include a collection of translation tools for translators working within the platform. Some translators still prefer to work on traditional translation programs (also referred to as computerassisted translation), so the TMS should be able to export files, such as XLIFF or PO/POT, as well. The most common translation tools include: style guides, glossary, translation memory and fuzzy matching. A more advanced TMS will be able to offer tools like contextual translation and pattern matching. Contextual translation seemingly adds a layer over the website or application and allows translators to see where the content is being used and how the translated version affects web layout. This helps the translator know if “home” means “house” or “home page,” for example. Pattern matching looks at phrases that seem exactly the same, but may contain a variable. For example, a tag on an e-commerce site reads: “Add to Cart $9.99.” The phrase “Add to Cart” may be used countless times in the website, but the “$9.99” may be used only a few times and refer to a particular product on the site. Pattern matching would identify the phrase “Add to Cart $9.99” as “Add to Cart {0}” so that the “Add to Cart” phrase would only have to be translated once, instead of for each time it occurs in the site or code. Next: Going Forth

Managing The Process Traditionally, language service providers (LSPs) receive content, translate it independently, and then deliver it for approval. Now, LSPs are adapting to more transparent workflows where clients can have oversight in the process. A TMS should offer companies: • The ability to choose what type of translation happens at each stage in the workflow — translation, editing, or review • Direct communication with translators working with their content • Management dashboards to provide high-level overview of projects • The capability to export in-progress work to internal teams for review • Access to content for in-market teams to edit before deploying to a web application Each of these features allows marketers to maintain control of voice and tone, achieve deadlines, and ensure the localized content remains consistent with the brand. Testing Once a brand has been localized, the last big step is to test it before launching. No matter where your company lies on the localization spectrum, this is an important last step in the localization process. Not only does it help to assess functionality of any web sites or applications, it also assures correct language and can protect a brand from committing significant cultural faux pas before entering a new market. Beta groups may even include in-house developers who are native to the target locale or super-users — a group of the most dedicated and passionate volunteers who are already users. As with crowdsourcing translations, users testing a localized brand should be bilingual, brand-loyal, and large enough to provide accurate, market-specific feedback.

brands and localization

Going Forth No matter the scale of your localization project, there are many resources to help translate content, develop user experiences, decrease time-to-market, preserve brand integrity, leverage assets, and engage a community around your brand. Taking into account local culture, languages, and utilizing available localization, translation, and technological resources allows a company to strike the balance between brand integrity and adapting to the local market. The strategies and protocols used for localizing to one market, although they may not have the exact same implementation or end product, can be scaled to multiple languages, cultures, and regions – making localization a more realistic and extensible global marketing strategy than ever. ❧

About Smartling Smartling, Inc. modernizes and simplifies the translation and localization process for global businesses and Web 2.0 companies. Winner of Dow Jones / Wall Street Journal’s “FASTech 50” for most innovative startup, Smartling is disrupting the aging translation and localization industry by offering the first purpose-built platform for translation management and delivery. Smartling’s cloud-based approach is helping some of the biggest names in web and mobile to launch and manage localized multilingual applications,

including SurveyMonkey, foursquare, Path, Vimeo, Nokia, Kodak, Pratt & Whitney and more. The Smartling platform currently serves more than one billion page views per month. Headquartered in New York City, Smartling is privately held and backed by leading venture capital firms, including First Round Capital, IDG Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and several prominent angel investors.

5 Keys to Translation Management Find the Translation Management System Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Right for Your Business

Introduction: The Translation Imperative The World Wide Web and mobile technologies have changed the way we do business forever. Today buyers and sellers rapidly connect online regardless of national and regional boundaries. Web and mobile platforms extend our reach to new markets while introducing new competitors. In this fast new world, your global initiatives can’t be held hostage to translation delays or poorly executed localization strategies. This is why Translation Management Systems have become essential tools for a wide range of businesses, from Internet start-ups to Global 2000 corporations. What is the right technology solution for your company’s needs? How do you find, evaluate and buy that solution? This guide offers practical answers to these questions.

Who Should Use This Guide? If you serve in any of the following executive or operational roles and are responsible for translation of content for websites, web applications and mobile apps, this guide is right for you: • VP/Director, Localization/Internationalization • VP/Director, Marketing/Global Marketing/Online Marketing/eCommerce • CTO/VP Products • CIO/VP/Director IT, Security or Network Operations

Business and Technical Priorities Whether your role is to drive business in multiple languages or to provide technology that supports globalization and localization efforts, you have a stake in choosing the right translation management solution. If you’re responsible for globalizing your Web and mobile business, you’re interested in solutions that: • Drive revenue from non-English speaking markets • Accelerate globalization and localization efforts while minimizing delays due to translation • Provide visibility into and control over the translation management processes, including change management to keep global and local content current • Enable professional and/or crowdsourced translation as well as internal editing and review • Reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the translation and localization process If your role is more technical, you probably have an additional set of priorities: • Reduce demand on technical staff for integration and support • Maintain existing tools, infrastructure and industry standards • Ensure uptime, security and reliability • Enable phased implementation approach

• Accommodate complex, dynamic web infrastructure with multiple code bases. In selecting a translation management system, look for solutions that support both business and technical objectives.

Evaluation Criteria Every company has different requirements, so there is no single set of evaluation criteria that applies to every situation. Organizations interested in competing and winning in today’s global marketplace should consider the following capabilities as they evaluation translation management solutions.

1 The goal is to create a global web and mobile presence so it is no surprise that the platform best suited for translation management is the cloud. Cloud-based technology enables collaboration across internal and external participants, including project managers, translators, editors and reviewers. Perhaps more importantly, it allows developers to deliver new functionality on a continuous basis, so their systems are “future ready” and make a sound investment as customer needs continue to grow and change.

2 A big part of any translation project is ensuring Web and mobile sites and applications are translation-ready. Often this means manually externalizing strings for translation, pasting them into spreadsheets, which are then distributed via email to translators and editors. At the end of the translation process finished content has to be manually loaded onto a new site or application instance for each new language. These steps can require significant IT resources, including hosting services, integration and support. Plus, this approach makes collaboration difficult while creating problems with version control and providing no context for the translation team. New proxy-based translation management systems have automated content capture and delivery. They not only automatically extract new content and load it into the translation tool but also serve up final translated content through a secure global infrastructure. Automatic content extraction and delivery relieves companies of a lot of work allowing them to easily maintain consistent, up-to-date content across any number of languages.

3 A good translation management system delivers real-time visibility and control over the entire translation management process, enabling participants to approve, translation, edit, review and publish translated content faster and more efficiently. Such a system should offer a range of capabilities, including: • APIs – Allow users to quickly capture source content in all common localization file formats and deliver translated content to websites and mobile apps. • Management dashboards – Enable users to track translation progress, prioritize content for translation, provide instructions to translation teams, communicate directly with translators and review translations prior to publication. • Workflow – Facilitate the entire translation process with role- and time-based notifications and alerts. • Version management – Ensure every translation revision is retained and time-stamped, with access to the full version history across the entire translation lifecycle, giving users a complete, accessible audit trail. • Pattern recognition – Linguistic algorithms enable the translation management system to automatically analyze and populate repeated patterns (such as “Welcome, Judy!”) using placeholders and variables, resulting in significant time and cost savings. • Advanced content localization – The system should allow you to deploy web applications and sites that are correctly localized for specific countries or regions and dramatically improve local marketing with custom graphics, color schemes, payment methods, currencies, marketing copy, date and time formats, and other localized components. • Analytics – Track progress by projects, languages, activities, participants and costs, as well as performance and conversion metrics like traffic, sign-ups and purchases for their multilingual websites and applications.

4 With traditional translation tools, each string is translated in isolation, out of context, without a view of the copy and graphics that surround it on the site or app and without the benefit of previous versions. The result is frequent redo’s as translators learn context through trial and error. • In-Context Editing – New cloud-based solutions provide dashboards that allow translators, editors and reviewers to translate and QA content in context, viewing actual screen layouts with full copy and graphics, for a more nuanced

understanding, higher-quality translations and faster time to completion. • Translation Memory – Translation memory allows users to stop wasting time on content that has already been translated elsewhere. Now every translation can be leveraged for future projects, improving consistency and significantly reducing ongoing costs. Make sure you can retain ownership of all translated content and are able to access, download, share and archive complete translation memories at any time.

5 Your translation management system should allow you to use professional translators, volunteer translators, or both, depending on the nature of the project. In addition to supporting ongoing communications with professionals, you should be able to easily assemble, manage and encourage volunteer translators and reviewers for crowdsourcing translation projects. Make sure project managers can track translator contribution, including rankings and leader boards, and offer incentives and prizes based on customizable criteria.

Vendor Qualifications Translation management is a dynamic market space. Beyond their current product offerings, the vendors you evaluate should have a demonstrated focus, commitment, and track record in translation management. Areas to consider include: • Experience: How large is the vendor’s base of paying TMS customers? How many sites, applications and languages has their platform delivered? • Focus: Is providing translation management systems core to their business? • Innovation: Do they have a track record of translation management innovation? • Reputation: Do they have a reputation of being responsive, easy to work with, and providing excellent service and support? • References: Can they provide references and case studies of proven customer success? • Viability: Do they have the resources and commitment to ensure long-term viability? • Vision: Does the vendor have a compelling vision of where translation management is headed and a credible roadmap to get you there?

Smartling provides an innovative cloud-based translation management platform that lets companies build and maintain a consistent, up-to-date, multilingual presence across any number of websites, applications, and languages. Winner of Wall Street Journal’s “FASTech 50” for most innovative startup, Smartling currently serves more than one billion page views per month on behalf of its customers. Headquartered in New York City, Smartling is privately held and backed by leading venture capital firms, including First Round Capital, IDG Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners and Venrock. For more information, go to www.smartling.com.

Agile Translation

FALL 2012

Today’s dynamic web and mobile environments demand a new approach to localization. Legacy translation systems too often lead to slow, expensive, error-prone translation projects requiring resourceintensive support. Smartling enables “agile localization” so you can deliver high-quality translation quickly and efficiently. Smartling’s cloud-based translation management platform lets you build a consistent, up-to-date, multilingual presence across any number of websites, applications and languages.

Smartling Translation Management System

The Smartling Translation Management System (TMS) is a web application that enables agile localization by allowing you to translate, edit, review and publish web and mobile content faster and more effectively than ever before. • Turnkey Content Capture – Easily and automatically capture source content in all common localization file formats via Smartling’s comprehensive file-oriented API. • End-to-End Management – Manage the entire localization process via flexible translation workflows; communicate with participants and track progress, activities, and cost in Smartling’s web dashboard. • In-Context Editing. View content in context, exactly as it appears on screen, for greater linguistic nuance and quality. • Best Practices – Translate using the practices of high quality translation, including workflows, glossaries, style guides, translation memories, and automated validation. • Turnkey Content Delivery – Seamlessly deliver translated content to web and mobile environments via the Smartling API.

TRANSLATION AT THE SPEED OF TODAY | fall 2012

GLOBAL DELIVERY NETWORK TRANSLATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM best superior

crowdsource

flexible

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Translation Management Platform

PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATORS

CROWDSOURCED/VOLUNTEER TRANSLATORS

PRO TRANSLATOR MARKETPLACE

CROWDSOURCING TOOLS

DASHBOARD API

TRANSLATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (TMS)

SOURCE FILES

API TRANSLATED FILES

Ruby YAML, Java Properties, iOS Strings, JSON, Android XML, SLIFF, gettext PO/POT, XML, and TMX

GLOBAL DELIVERY NETWORK (GDN) SOURCE WEBSITES AND APPS

LOCALIZED WEBSITES AND APPS

Smartling Global Delivery Network

The Smartling Global Delivery Network (GDN) is a cloud-based service that extends the Translation Management System to enable global network delivery of localized web content. • Automated Content Capture – The Smartling GDN automatically detects, captures and tracks new content whenever the source-language site or application is updated. • Automated Content Delivery – The GDN delivers translated websites and web applications via our reliable, worldwide network optimized for global content delivery; eliminate the huge expense of building out an international network infrastructure or maintaining separate multilingual websites. • Advanced Management Capabilities – The Smartling GDN includes all the functionality of the Smartling TMS, plus additional management features including: - Search Engine Optimized -- GDN sites are fully compatible for search engines, and your public multilingual content is fully indexed by Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. Further, keywords, meta tags, and other search content may be modified to optimize for language- or region-specific search. - Advanced Content Localization – Target specific countries or regions with truly localized websites and applications, including custom graphics, search terms, marketing copy, date and time formats, currencies, and other localized content. - Pattern Recognition – Linguistic algorithms enable Smartling to automatically analyze and populate repeated patterns (such as “Page 1 of 10”), resulting in cost and time savings of up to 40 percent. - Multilingual In-Site Search -- If your web application offers an in-site search capability, GDN sites offer similar in-site multilingual search -- so your visitors can search in their native language. - Real-Time Analytics – Track ROI metrics like traffic, sign-ups, purchases, and other conversion metrics on multilingual sites. • Enterprise-Class Security – Enterprise-Class Security and Scalability – The GDN offers up to 99.99% uptime, is certified PCI Level 1 (the highest level of Payment Cards Industry certification), and is SSAE 16 SOC 2 compliant.

TRANSLATION AT THE SPEED OF TODAY | fall 2012

Smartling Crowdsource

Translation crowdsourcing can help strengthen your user community, build brand loyalty and reduce your translation costs. With Smartling Crowdsource you can easily recruit and manage volunteer translators and reviewers, and arm them with specialized workflow and collaboration tools to ensure quality.

Smartling Professional Services

Smartling can provide consulting, system integration, custom development and translator management services to ensure your translation projects are successful. Ask us about structuring a plan to fit your unique requirements.

“Time to market for the launch of our first language – Dutch – was only six weeks from signing with Smartling. After launch, our increased traffic and new subscriber sign-ups offset Smartling’s monthly platform costs almost immediately.” Minna King,  VP of Internationalization, Survey Monkey

TRANSLATION AT THE SPEED OF TODAY | fall 2012

why smartling? Companies seeking to implement agile localization with high-quality translation at the speed of today are choosing Smartling. Here are seven great reasons why: • Future-Ready, Continuous Development – Innovative, cloudbased technology enables us to deliver new functionality nonstop. • End-to-End Translation Management – You get real-time visibility and control over the entire translation process. • Automatic Content Capture and Delivery – Capture new content and automatically deliver localized versions through our secure, reliable, global network. • Review Content in Context – Translate and QA content in context for greater linguistic nuance and superior quality. • Now Serving over 1B Page Views per Month – Smartling customers like foursquare, GetSatisfaction, GoPro, Kobo, Nokia, Path, SurveyMonkey and Vimeo now serve more than a billion translated web pages through Smartling. • Options: Pro Translators or Crowdsourcing – Quickly ramp up crowdsourcing translation projects, leverage the experience and expertise of Smartling’s certified professional translators • Technical Integration –Smartling’s open and extensible platform allows you to easily integrate with your existing systems and workflows.

About Smartling

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR WEBSITE FOR

Translation & Localization getting started with translation & Localization

step 1: prepare your content for translation

step 2: select your translation strategy

step 3: Evaluate translation management technology

summary 11

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

Getting Started with Translation & Localization IF YOUR WEBSITE IS LIVE IT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REACH A GLOBAL AUDIENCE but to actually succeed

in international markets you must provide a culturally relevant, multilingual experience. Simply put, people don’t buy stuff or engage with companies that don’t speak their language. The first step is to translate your content into multiple languages but even this is not enough. To be truly global, you need to localize for each of your markets. This means products, offers, currencies – everything – customized for each locale. It’s a complicated process that requires professional translators, localization experts and significantly, a website infrastructure optimized for delivering multilingual content. There are specific things you can do today to prepare your code and infrastructure for faster more streamlined translation.

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

BEFORE YOU GET TO YOUR CONTENT, AT A MINIMUM YOU NEED TO CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

User Technology

How do your local customers connect to the Internet? Do they have high-speed connections? Will most visitors use mobile devices or desktop screens?

Brand Identity

Do elements such as colors, imagery or icons create negative impressions within the local market? Are there specific regional preferences you need to consider?

Navigation

Is the site layout and navigation intuitive for users across locales?

Search Engine Optimization

Which search engines are commonly used? How do rankings and experiences differ across regions?

Next: Step 1: Prepare Your Content for Translation

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

STEP

Prepare Your Content for Translation A TRULY GLOBAL SITE STARTS WITH TRANSLATABLE SOURCE CONTENT

Preparing code for translation has three primary phases: • Identify localizable strings • Assess locale-specific elements • Sort out data encoding elements

Identify Localizable Strings The first step is to separate the content that needs to be translated into standard file formats. If strings are embedded in the site’s code, you must first extract and translate content. The translated content then needs to be reinserted in the code. Depending on your platform, the strings may be gettext .pot, Ruby YML, Java properties, XML, or JSON format. The following is an example of a Java properties file localized for French: # This is the defaultuser.properties file ASPS.Size.Centered = vrai ASPS.Size.Quiet = faux ASPS.Size.Unit = pouces

Selecting Text To Localize

To be efficient and reduce costs, you should plan to translate only text strings that render to users or are used for SEO optimization. Localizable text strings are typically found in the following locations in the code base: • • • • • • • • • • •

Views: presentation logic (HTML, JSP, etc.) Controllers and business logic JavaScript jQuery templates (and other types of JavaScript-based front end templates) Databases (for example, articles in your CMS) Automated email messages sent by your application Video/audio files Graphical representations of text inside images Programmatically added strings for menu items, windows, panels, or other controls User facing error messages New file and document names

Depending on the platform you will have one or more files, and it’s important that you use UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding. The site or application will load the files for the specific language at runtime.

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How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

Assess Locale-Specific Elements The next step is to review the various locale-specific elements of your site.

Locale Settings

How will the application present users with the correct locale? One way is to simply allow the user to choose a language or region, include their preference in a user’s profile, and store the profile in user preferences and cookies. Another option is to automatically route users to the language of their preference based on their geographical location or the default operating System (OS) language in their browser preferences. In this case, the OS language setting is generally preferred over geo-location, since this provides a more accurate view of a user’s preferences.

Alphabetical Sorting

There are two main issues with alphabetical sorting: 1. Once translated, alphabetical lists from the source site will no longer be in alphabetical order. Reordering will likely need to be handled with code. 2. Languages sort in different ways. For example, ä is sorted in German as if it is two letters, ae, while in Finnish, it comes after z. Inelegant sorting is particularly awkward for applications that manage contacts or similar data. Correcting these issues seamlessly will distinguish an application from one that doesn’t.

Calendar, Date, and Time Formatting

Various regions and languages run on different calendar, date, and time formats. In American English the date is written September 14, 2012, but in French it is written le 14 septembre, 2012. In addition, the first of the month is written ordinally: le 1er avril, 2012. Working with the standard (ISO 8601) will ensure that the code doesn’t store formatted versions of dates.

Currency and Numeric Formatting

Currency and numbers also format differently in different countries or regions, typically around decimal and thousand separators and monetary symbols. For example, $1,200.60 in American money would appear as 1.200,60 $ in German. Make sure that the application doesn’t store numbers internally as formatted strings.

Addresses and Telephone Numbers

Not everyone lives in one of the fifty United States, or even lists a state (or canton, or province) in their mailing address. Locale-specific logic will need to handle addresses elegantly. Similarly, when it comes to phone numbers, there are various local formats for country codes (1--3 digits), area codes, and local phone numbers. While there will never be more than 15 digits in any international number, the numbers format in a variety of combinations.

Units of Measurement

Units of measurement (length, width, height, etc.) also vary by locale. Each country has standardized systems of measurement and some even have laws regulating the display of metric measurements. Local measurements should not be hard-coded. Continued on next page ➢

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

Writing Direction

Most target languages will likely read left to right (LTR), but some, such as Arabic and Hebrew, read right to left (RTL). Depending on the target locales, the development team may need to determine if it is worthwhile to support bi-directional text or if it would be better to develop another solution. Less common are scripts like traditional Chinese that read vertically and then RTL. (As long as your site doesn’t include ancient scripts, you shouldn’t worry about the boustrophedon style that alternates direction on each line.)

Complex Text Layout

Using a font developed for the target locale can help optimize text layouts. Ideally, the font should include complex or special characters such as accents, locale-specific umlauts, or punctuation (such as the reversed question mark ¿ in Spanish or guillemets « » in French). And while characters that lack accents and umlauts may appear virtually the same at first glance, their absence could be the equivalent of writing “Kevin” as “Klvin.” Stick with Unicode character sets and you should be fine.

Paper Sizes

If users need to print from a web application, the application must be ready for paper other than standard US and Canadian ‘letter’ size (8.5 x 11 in). Most European and Asian countries use A4 paper (210 x 297mm) but we also recommended allowing users to configure paper size. There is a lot of information on international standards here: ISO 216.

Government Assigned Numbers

There are nine digits for a Social Security number in the United States and Canada. How many numbers in each target locale’s government ID numbers?

TIP

Start Small and Test If you are entering ten new markets, and each market has a different color scheme, user interface, and navigation methods, a team will quickly get bogged down in what are effectively ten different sites. Is it worth it? To find out, start small and test incremental changes to see how they affect conversions in local areas, just as you would for new features and changes to the site in your original language.

Line / Word Breaking

To ensure that layouts adjust to longer word lengths, they should be designed for more complicated locales. Marketing copy and web content in English typically uses brief, straightforward language. Design based on this source language will almost certainly need to be adjusted for other languages as the length and size of text grows or shrinks. It is best to plan for about 30% variability. While line breaks may conform to clear grammatical rules falling at the ends of lines or at places of punctuation in English, other languages follow different rules. For example, Asian languages don’t necessarily use spaces to separate words.

Continued on next page ➢

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

Shopping Cart Handling

In addition to handling international currency and shipping, you should decide whether prices will display in local currency. A website must also be able to accept the correct credit cards for each locale. It also may be necessary to offer other payment methods such as national debit cards, bank transfers, PayPal, or eWallets for specific locales.

Culturally Specific Symbols or Colors

Culturally specific symbols or colors are sometimes difficult to predict. There are many examples of culture-specific imagery: orange has religious connotations in northern Ireland; black represents death in many western cultures while in many eastern cultures death is represented by white. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best to start with research on your specific locale, and try to catch issues using local reviewers.

Fonts

A font that displays elegantly in the source language may be illegible in another. Generally speaking, Asian fonts need to be one or more point sizes larger than Latin-based fonts to account for the complexity of the characters.

Locale-Specific Content

Job listings, company-sponsored events, and promotions are typically locale-specific. The application code must be flexible enough to swap this content entirely for each locale.

Next: Step 2: Select Your Translation Strategy

Sort Out Data Encoding Any global site needs to support Unicode. Unicode was developed to provide a unique number for every character, regardless of the platform, program, or language, so that computers can process and maintain data text integrity in any language. Unicode is supported by all modern browsers and operating systems and contains over 100,000 characters from many different languages. UTF-8 is variable-length character encoding that is familiar to most development groups and is common on the web, but other encodings such as UTF-16 and UTF-32 are also used, particularly for Java and Linux/ Unix systems respectively. Conversions between the encodings are algorithmically based, fast, and lossless so you can support data input or output in multiple formats while using one UTF encoding for internal storage or processing.

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

STEP

Select Your Translation Strategy OUTSOURCE TO PROFESSIONALS, LEVERAGE THE CROWD OR RELY ON MACHINES

Translating written content is the first step to localizing a site. But good translation requires more than literally translating a phrase to a different language. A quality translator looks at the source text and interprets it in ways that make it relevant to the target market. The three primary methods for translation are to hire professional translators, engage volunteer translators for a crowdsourced approach or use machine translation.

Professional Professional translators tend to specialize in a particular domain, such as medical, legal, or marketing copy, and in a single language. Translators should work in their native language, have deep knowledge of the local market and be based in their native country. Organizations often use Language Service Providers (LSP) or translation agencies to manage professional translators and provide editing and review services. The LSP manages the entire workflow, from translation to editing to review. This often results in higher project management costs. Organizations can manage the translation process themselves through a network of freelance translators, but this requires more internal resources.

Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing translations are typically done by multilingual volunteers in an engaged community of users who translate the source content into their native language. Crowd volunteers are already familiar with and passionate about the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s products or services. They can also help an organization garner support in the local market as community members participate in the localization process and have a say in the development of the brand in that local market Because crowdsourced translations use volunteers, organizations must manage the community and either rely on these same volunteers or source professionals to edit and review translated content.

Machine Machine translation services are typically faster and less expensive than professional or crowdsourced translations, but are also of lower quality with per word costs and daily limits. It is better reserved for large amounts of content that would likely not be seen by a consumer.

Next: Step 3: Evaluate Translation Management Technology

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

STEP

Evaluate Translation Management Technology

Unless localized websites are built from scratch by a dedicated development team, businesses usually implement a Translation Management System (TMS). A TMS helps manage the workflow of identifying and extracting strings of content to be localized, sending the content to vendors or translators, and then reinserting the localized content into the localized site. Providing localized content also requires getting content to translators, facilitating communication among translators and between translators, editors, and reviewers, and providing each of them with the tools they need to make an accurate translation. TMS comes in two flavors. Delivered solutions where your source content is replaced with translated text as the page loads. File or string-base Application Programming Interface (API) solutions where your source files are automatically parsed and uploaded for rapid translation.

Delivered Solutions With a delivered solution, the TMS will replace the source content with translations as the page is served. Developers configure domains or subdomains such as fr.mysite.com or www.mysite.fr with the TMS. The TMS provides editors, translators, and reviewers with context for the strings by displaying them as they appear on the website. Strings can be in various formats (JavaScript or Ajax/JSON requests) or files hosted on a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Then when a user requests a page from one of the

domains, details from the user’s browser (metadata, cookies, etc.) will be sent to the source domain. When the requested HTML passes from the source site to the TMS, the TMS identifies translatable elements (text strings) and inserts available translations to deliver a translated version of the page. This approach is beneficial because it allows you to launch localized domains very quickly. Generally the strings are automatically gathered so the source text doesn’t need to be extracted for translation from the various places it lives on the site, and it isn’t necessary to provide extra servers or other infrastructure. Delivered solutions also offer opportunities for custom localized content management and analytics, and it means the development team can turn around new content very quickly. Given that all web traffic interacts with the TMS, any such solution should address common concerns around performance and/or security.

File or String-based Solutions In the string-based approach, the development team typically extracts and provides all of the properties files destined for translation to a localization or translation service provider. The translation vendor’s tool imports the strings, queues them for translation, and returns them to the company in the original format. This workflow is usually automated via an API so that as the source files change, the translation vendor’s tool detects the new strings and adds them to the translation queue. Continued on next page ➢

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

New strings of code can also be flagged for translation manually. For professional or crowdsourced translations, the vendor should provide contextual translation tools so that translations display for translators in the site or application. The main advantage of this approach is that the company or development team handles all of the web traffic and controls the delivery of translated strings. This requires developing a system to extract new source strings whenever they appear on the site and may also require additional infrastructure to manage and deliver the strings, including setting up staging

TIP

Plan for Linguistic Differences When designing user interfaces for the original site, anticipate differences in grammar and syntax across languages. When translating to certain languages, the number or gender of items in a phrase can affect the translation, so to be linguistically accurate, your application may need to accomodate the number or gender of items. There are some strategies for designing the User Interface and content that allow you to remove these dependencies and get simpler translations.. You can also reuse content via a Content Management System (CMS) or other tool and significantly reduce translation word counts and streamline the process.

Next: Summary

environments. It’s important to be able to send and receive files quickly. As a result, using this approach can generally take longer to launch.

Translator Tools Some of the standard tools that make a translator’s job easier are a glossary, style guide, translation memory, and fuzzy matching. More advanced tools include translation context and matching text patterns. While Localization Service Providers (LSP) would traditionally manage translations in a ‘black box’ by receiving content from a client, translating that content and then returning it for approval without any visibility into the process for the client, a TMS provides more transparency and allows a company to oversee the process. A TMS allow for immediate status updates, direct communication with translators, editors, and reviewers, and the ability to export in- process translations for review and testing.

Scalable International Delivery A key feature of an excellent localization tool is delivery infrastructure that allows for easy international deployment. One way to do this is via Content Delivery Networks (CDN). CDNs store heavy assets, such as images, video, and audio files on servers around the world. This enables users to download these assets quickly from a nearby server. To optimize user experience, developers can set up local servers to deliver the code and text at similar speeds to the source site. Better performance of a localized site translates to higher rates of conversion for international users; site visitors will be more likely to use or purchase products and services.

How to Prepare Your Website for Translation & Localization

Summary Building a smart, effective and scalable global presence is not easy but businesses that follow best practices around code management, translation strategy and tool selection will meet the challenge: • Know your local customer. Understand locale specific preferences around date, time, currency, color, branding, Internet access and other culturally relevant attributes. • Prepare and manage your code. Setting up your code base correctly will make the entire translation and localization process simpler and more seamless for the long-term • Identify the appropriate translation method. Every business and content category is unique so you’ll need to assess the best way to translate your text. Is it the crowd or professionals or machine or a combination of all three? • Select the right technology. Translation management technology is finally catching up to the dynamic web sites of today. Pick a tool or platform that can support your requirements for today and tomorrow. ❧

ABOUT SMARTLING Smartling, Inc. modernizes and simplifies the translation and localization process for global businesses and Web 2.0 companies. Winner of Dow Jones / Wall Street Journal’s “FASTech 50” for most innovative startup, Smartling is disrupting the aging translation and localization industry by offering the first purpose-built platform for translation management and delivery. Smartling’s cloud-based approach is helping some of the biggest names in web and mobile to launch and manage localized

multilingual applications, including SurveyMonkey, FourSquare, Path, Vimeo, Nokia, Kodak, Pratt & Whitney and more. The Smartling platform currently serves more than one billion page views per month. Headquartered in New York City, Smartling is privately held and backed by leading venture capital firms, including First round Capital, IDG Ventures, US Venture Partners, Venrock and several prominent angel investors.

Best Practices for Translating Mobile Apps Find the Translation Management System Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Right for Your Business

HI!

Translating your mobile app is good for business. Simply put, the more people who can find and use your mobile application in their native language, the larger your potential market. But launching a multilingual app and keeping it updated is a challenge — one that requires agility and speed. Before you start translating there are business decisions to be made. What languages will you use? What content in the app will be translated? Who will handle the actual translation? Once those are resolved, you need to apply best coding practices and tools to streamline translation and prepare your app for the global market.

More languages, more customers, better app store rankings Twelve languages cover 80% of the globe’s online population today, and thirteen cover 90% of online spending power. Right now, English and Spanish cover 30% of the online population — but add Chinese and you are over 50%. Two billion people are projected to join the world’s middle class by 2030. The figure for India alone is 450 million, while the middle class in Africa is projected to double. As the middle class grows and people gain access to content and commerce through mobile devices, many more languages will be required to connect with these global consumers. How will these global consumers find your app? Just translating the app store description for your app into multiple languages can improve your positioning in store rankings. Since app store postings are reviewed by human beings (unlike web search results) high quality writing and translation for the description may enhance your position. Careful keyword selection for each language is also essential.

HOLA! OLA!

Your Multilingual App: Getting Started

Categorize and organize your content By categorizing the app content and setting priorities for what is most important to translate, you can make cost-effective translation decisions. If you are budget-constrained, you may have to make trade-offs between translating content and core app functionality.

Determine what content and functionality to translate What functionality will you translate to provide an optimal experience for your users in every language? Typically, this will include the user interface elements like menus, button labels,

settings, and in-line help. When you translate, you also need to localize items like dates, times, measures and currency. You may also choose to localize some design elements, such as colors and images. For many apps, choosing what content to translate is fairly straightforward, e.g. a tourist information app might need to translate locations and descriptions for popular destinations. Some content may be displayed in an app but generated by a web server. In an e-commerce application, for example, the app may pull product information from the store website. For the user to see that information in the language of the user interface, you’ll need to translate the content of the server application as well as the mobile app. Pricing and currency from the server application will need to be localized.

Figure out how to deal with User Generated Content (UGC)

There are significant business decisions required when a mobile app includes UGC such as user reviews and ratings. Should the UGC be translated, or should the app only display it in the user’s language? Regardless of what you decide to translate, you will want to ensure that your app accepts usergenerated text in any language, independent of the language of the user interface. The same applies for server side applications that work with the mobile app.

As the middle class grows and people gain access to content and commerce through mobile devices, many more languages will be required to connect with these global consumers. Try to plan ahead for translation when writing copy in the app’s “original” language. Some phrases are difficult to translate (slogans and jargon are notorious for causing problems). It’s a good idea to consult with a professional translator or locale-specific marketing professionals to determine how best to represent your brand.

Select the translation method that fits your business and budget You can translate your app using professional translation, crowdsourcing or machine translation. If precision and consistency in word choice are essential to the functioning of your app, you may need to work with professional translators. Crowdsourcing is a smart option for apps with active early adopters who speak the target language; you may be able to engage them to translate content, with an expert coordinating the work. For some businesses, machine translation may be sufficient, or you may decide to use a combination. Whichever path you choose, it’s a key decision. www.smartling.com

How to Code for Easy Translation

Deploy the Best Translation Tools

The key to setting up your mobile app for easy translation is to separate translatable content from executable code. Doing this eliminates the need to recode the entire application for each language. Just as important, it greatly facilitates the translation process.

Once your strings files/resources have been separated from executable code, and fully commented, those resources should be moved into a commercial translation management tool that can handle your translation files and assets natively. This will facilitate rapid and accurate translation, whether the work is done internally, through a translation service, through crowdsourcing, or through machine translation.

Adhere to Platform Best Practices Follow platform-specific best coding practices related to translation provided by the relevant platform — Android, Apple/ iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry or another. In iOS, resource files that will be translated are referred to as strings files (with filename extension .strings). A simple strings file has the format: “key”=“value”; . In Android, a “string resource” provides the text strings for an app. Keep in mind that as the language of the app changes, objects (e.g. labels, drop-downs) may need adjustments to size and position to fit the new text. In iOS, the Auto Layout best practice allows for this. Another critical best coding practice: Make sure your code is set up to easily update dates, times, and currencies to fit locales.

JAMBO!

Go the Extra Mile to Provide Context

Context is essential to determining the most appropriate translation for a string of text. Many English words can be either a noun or a verb, or a noun or an adjective —and the translations are likely to be different. The word “home” when used as a link to the application’s main screen may require a different translation than if used as the label for a home address field. Context — where and how a specific string of text will be used — makes it clear which translation is appropriate, and will improve quality of translation. Translators need to know when text will be on a menu or other button, when text labels a setting choice, when it will be a field where the value is determined by the app, and how it relates to other text on the screen. A good translator will also be grateful for instructions associated with a text string. For example, it’s helpful to know “This text goes on a button and cannot be longer than 10 characters; no text wrapping is possible.” iOS provides for associating comments with each strings file. Android allows the use of descriptive metadata that serves as a comment (string.name attribute). Taking screenshots of all screens, showing text location and format, is another way to provide context.

Your translation system should: Display each piece of text to be translated along with a comments on context and translator instructions

a Allow the translator to see each text string to be translated in context via screenshots

a Provide for customized translation workflow suited to your project and your team

a Allow direct communication between team members, including queries and responses from the text the translator is working on (e.g. “The best translation for this phrase is three characters longer — can the field be enlarged?”) Support collaborative workflow, so that the a translation team, editors and trusted reviewers have ready access to all versions of content with the ability to edit, comment and correct Have application programming interfaces (APIs) to a automate the process of uploading and downloading files when the translations are ready

a Offer a translation memory database, which can be leveraged for future translations to cut costs and speed up translation

In Summary Making your mobile app multilingual can help you grow your customer base quickly. Use best practices for coding and translation; don’t re-invent the wheel. Use a commercial tool that complements and supports best practices and enables speedy, high quality translations.

www.smartling.com

Smartling, Inc. simplifies and accelerates translation and localization for companies building a global presence. Using an innovative, cloud-based translation management platform, Smartling helps companies quickly translate their dynamic websites and web and mobile applications, keeping every language and location consistent and up-to-date. Named “Most Innovative Startup” at Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal’s 2011 FASTech 50, Smartling is shaking up the outdated translation and localization industry with the first platform designed to manage the entire translation, localization and delivery process in the cloud. Brands that rely on Smartling to launch and manage localized multilingual websites and applications include SurveyMonkey, foursquare, Path, Vimeo, Nokia, Kodak, Shell, HotelTonight, Uber, GoPro, and more. The Smartling platform currently serves more than one billion page views per month for websites in over 100 languages. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in New York City, Smartling is privately held and backed by First Round Capital, IDG Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and several prominent angel investors.