What is Globalization (G11N)
Localization Testing
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What is Globalization (G11N)
- Activities performed for the purpose of marketing a (software) product in regional marketing a (software) product in regional markets
- Goal: Global marketing that accounts for economic and legal factors.
- Focus on marketing; total enterprise solutions and to management support
Aspects of Localization
- Terminology
The selection and definition as well as the correct and consistent usage of terms are preconditions for successful localition:
- laymen and expert users
- in most cases innovative domains and topics
- huge projects with many persons involved
- consistent terminology throughout all products
- no synonyms allowed
- prededined terminology(environment, laws, specifications, guidelines, corporate language)
- Symbols
- Symbols are culture-dependant, but often they cannot be modified by the localizer.
- Symbols are often adopted from other (common) spheres of life.
- Symbols often use allusions (concrete for abstract); in some cases, homonyms or even homophones are used.
- Illustrations and Graphics
- Illustrations and graphics are very often culture dependant, not only in content but also in the way they are presented
- Illustrations and graphics should be adopted to the (technical) needs of the target market (screen shots, manuals)
- Illustrations and graphics often contain textual elements that must be localized, but cannnot be isolated.
- Colors have different meanings in different cultures
- Character sets
- Languages are based on different character sets ("alphabets")
- the localized product must be able to handle(display, process, sort etc) the needed character set
- "US English" character sets (1 byte, 7 bit or 8 bit)
- Product development for internationalization should be based on UNICODE (2 byte or 4 byte)
- Fonts and typography
- Font types and font families are used in different cultures with varying frequency and for different text types and parts of text
- Example: In English manuals fonts with serifs(Times Roman) are preferred; In German manuals fonts without serifs(Helvetica) are preferred
- Example: English uses capitalization more frequently(e.g. CAUTION) for headers and parts of text
- Language and style
- In addition to the language specific features of grammar, syntax and style, there are cultural conventions that must be taken into account for localization.
- In (US_English) an informal style is preferred, the reader is addressed directly, "simple" verbs are used, repetition of parts of text is accepted etc.
- Formulating headers (L10N)
- Long compound words (L10N)
- Elements of the user interface
Open the File menu
The Open dialog box appears
Click the copy command
- Formats
- Date, currency, units of measurement
- Paper format
- Different length of text
- Consequences for the volume of documents, number of pages, page number (table of contents, index)etc.
- Also for the size of buttons (IT, machines etc.)
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