The expansion of the international market is one of the most important characteristics of the economic development of companies around the world, which leads to the introduction of software products in international markets.
In this way, companies must make an arduous effort to adapt their processes, procedures, and products. Companies that strategically decide to internationalize face the challenge of ensuring that their products or services have an adequate linguistic, cultural, and legal transformation so that they can be adapted to different countries.
The development of internationalized products or services is a complex and expensive task due to the increased hours of work in design and coding, the need for additional tools and skills, and the effects on management and project architecture. The early detection of internationalization requirements by the architect and project leader influences the ease of implementation and the detection and correction of errors.
As we know, software internationalization (i18n) is the process of preparing a product at a technical level so that it can be feasibly adapted to multiple languages and cultural conventions without extensive redesign for each language. The i18n is shown as a process but also as the succession of steps integrated to create a global product, which is designed, developed, and quality guaranteed for the foreign market.
In the case of software, if a software product is not internationalized in advance, it is almost certain that an additional expense will be incurred during the localization process, which in some cases will make this process not feasible.
The degree of internationalization depends partly on the complexities of the languages to be introduced. If you will localize a product developed in English into French, Italian, German, and Spanish, the level of complexity is significantly lower than would it would be required if the product is to support Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Arabic, and Hindi, which require very special planning and design considerations.
Internationalization as a continuous process is a new approach to global content, integrating with the CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Distribution) method companies use to deliver software to their customers frequently.
When adding new features or content, design teams should be aware of language-specific requirements such as bi-directionality (LTR/RTL) of languages and distribution of word lengths in various languages. To achieve this, effective and agile UX localization is a must.
Developers should rigorously follow best i18n practices such as string externalization, correct use of placeholders, plurals, and currency and date formatting.
Making internationalization and localization a tightly embedded part of the CI/CD workflow allows teams to shorten release cycles and deliver a multilingual experience seamlessly. Localization suites such as Localazy can help you with continuous internationalization, translation management, and global delivery of translated content.
When implemented correctly, continued internationalization almost always results in higher team productivity, more collaboration, faster time to market, and lower risk than achieved by traditional approaches.
Fundamental steps to build the foundations of internationalization as a continuous process:
Continuous internationalization is the most efficient process for companies that frequently release localized updates to their apps, websites, and content. Continuous internationalization and localization help you in future-proofing your products while your organization expands its global focus.
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