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We’ve written before about apps to help with your translation needs. But what if an app is the thing you need translated?
Now in 2014, there may well be an app for absolutely everything. Apps for games, apps for shopping, apps for networking and socializing, apps for dating, apps for cooking… run a search in the online store of your choice, and you’re liable to find an app for it. It wasn’t so long ago that businesses of every stripe were hurrying to get websites up and running, to take advantage of the Internet. With so much of the world living on their phones (smartphones being a more affordable, and far more portable, alternative to computers), can those same businesses afford to miss out on apps?
When you’ve created an app for your business, you will of course need to have it translated to match any languages into which you’ve localized your website. We have a track record of success with both apps and websites, as you can see here. In many ways, having your app translated is like having anything else translated – but there are some particularities to take into account. If you’d like to have an app translated, think of the following:
Research your markets – Is your website translated into French, Dutch, German and Russian? Then those are the languages you’ll need for your app, obviously. But what kind of app will play well in those markets? Just as we’ve seen with web design for different cultures, your clients in France may have the most positive reaction of a different type of app than your customers in Russia. You may need to tweak more than the language to make a multilingual app that will bring you great results across the board. Find out which apps fare the best in your target markets, and learn what you can from your findings. You can do a very cursory version of such research here.
Boil it down – A webpage has limited real estate for text and graphics, as much as will fit on a computer screen. An app for smartphones and tablets (even big tablets) has even less. You’ve got no more than a few square inches in which to apply your creative and design skills, so take care to make the most of it. This kind of constraint can actually help to develop the best kind of source text for translation: clear, concise, free of colloquialism, and easy to read. And don’t forget one inconvenient truth about translating out of English – the text almost always grows in length. Leave your translators some room to work with!
Get it reviewed – In-country review is an important component of any translation work. With an app, it becomes essential. Get some testers in your target markets to go over your translated app word by word, tap by tap. Make sure they take exhaustive notes, and pay attention to their comments. Your end-users will be interacting with your app in a very personal way, so it had better read and function like a charm. Think about how important your phone is to your life, for better or worse. You’ve only got room on your phone for so many apps… if you’d like your foreign clients to clear up some precious phone-space for you, you’d better earn it!
Prepare for updates – Annoying as it can be when updates come in for your apps, they’re necessary. They’ll be necessary in every language, too, so plan for it. Even in the initial translation phase, start thinking about a formal structure and workflow for having your updates translated and implemented, including added features, alterations to the text, patch notes, etc. You don’t want your foreign language clients lagging behind your users at home when it comes to version updates. A well-organized process will keep everyone on the same page.
Ready for some app translation? Contact us today – we’d love to talk about it!
