Mobile Translations October 2012
Are you looking to
sell your products in other countries? With the growing mobile market in China,
India and Korea – Asian markets are easier to access than ever before.
Consumers in these markets rely on their smart phones, android devices, iPads
and iPhones, tablets to connect them to the internet, few have desktops or
laptops for connectivity. Keep up with your global audience using multilingual,
bi-lingual content.
How to begin?
Points to consider
·
Know your
market.
Are you developing mobile apps and dedicating your marketing resources
to this medium?
Who is the end user of your product, your marketing, your message? What
carriers and devices are used in these new markets? What is the preferred
resolution of these products?
·
Limited
visual field.
The screen for a mobile device like a smart phone, blackberry, android
or iPhone has limited viewing space. Tablets and IPad have larger screens and
can accommodate more text. Remember your space limitations when developing
content, adding pictures and videos sparingly. Share your string limitations
with your translations team. A target language like Spanish, German or French
for example can be up to 126% larger while Asian characters take less space and
Arabic is read left to right. If necessary, abbreviations will be used to
shorten the characters in the translated string.
·
Strategy
Determine your international strategy first. Are you developing an
Android app and the localization region uses Blackberry, IPhone carriers,
tablets and IPads? Do you need to develop in one platform first then move to
others? Perhaps you wish to develop multilingual content across platforms?
Localization of all platforms is possible and we recommend you determine how
you should enter a global market.
·
Start
with a glossary and style guide
The All Clear Advantage: We will create these guides for you. These tools will enable a
consistent message. The glossary and style guide will be utilized by your
developers and translators to create a clear and consistent message across
products, regions, and cultures.
·
Images
and Icons
Icons ARE NOT UNIVERSAL. With all translations, cultural considerations
are very important. Unfortunately, there are no universal images or icons that
are bi-directional and cross cultures. Try to use images and icons that are
universally understood. Don’t assume an image or icon or symbol has the same
meaning across cultures. Be aware of local cultural customs when entering a new
market.
§ Example: some hand gestures are considered
obscene in many cultures.
Avoid using hand icons for universal considerations.
Links for helpful
web/mobile design:
Thanks for all your efforts that you have put in this. Very interesting info.
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