Firstly: This month is #TryPod, a month where podcasters, and people who love podcasts bring podcasts to those who do not listen to them. I share the love for some of my latest subscriptions here
Secondly: Matt and I will both be at Testbash Brighton! come say hi if you’re there 😀
And now, onto the episode. This week we’re discussing localisation:
Here are our talking points, in both mindmap and notes form:
- Cultures
- language
- error messages
- context for translations
- play on words
- expectations
- Local holidays
- Personal name and title conventions
- Aesthetics
- Colour symbolism
- Ethnicity
- Socioeconomic status of people
- Local customs and superstitions
- Differences in address, post code and telephone numbers
- Measurements
- Voltage and current standards
- language
- Â Translations
- Video or audio – dubbing or subtitles?
- Printed materials?
- Logos or graphics?
- Layout issues with the length of translation or character sizes
- Dialect? Register? Variety?
- Format of numbers?
- Date and time format?
- Different calendars?
- Do you need to translate? Common phrases or graphics
- Consistency heuristic
- Regulatory compliance
- Laws
- Taxes
- Restrictions
- Disclaimers
- Great Firewall of China
- Third party service availability e.g. Google Maps or PayPal
- Device differences
- Languages
- Complex text layout where characters change depending on context
- Writing direction (left to right or right to left)
- Different text sorting rules
- Numeral systems
- Different pluralisation rules
- Different punctuation
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Accessibility/Screen reading
- Technical challenges
- Translating easy – but maintaining with new text or fixes?
- Building software that is easy to localise
- Separating locale-dependent parts
- Deployments
- Timezones
- Daylight savings