Taking your product or
service global, if done right, could reap significant rewards for your business
venture. The high stakes involved in going global means that brands have their
work cut out to make sure market entry is successful.
Off all the components
involved in market entry, establishing a meaningful and seamless user
experience is probably the most crucial factor in ensuring the long-term
sustainability of your business.
While several industry
experts put the discussion of localization on the front burner when
it comes to going global, one critical segment sparsely mentioned is the role
of internationalization and how it affects the user experience.
For this reason, we would
be taking a more concise look at internationalization and how brands can take
advantage of it when going global.
What is
internationalization?
As the name implies,
Internationalization fundamentally means getting your product or service to the
global scene, but at the same time, it means more.
From the language point of
view, the process of reaching out to an international audience who are, most
times, diverse in culture and language requires efficiency.
Your products or services
need to be easily modifiable, or better still, adaptable to fit different
regions without requiring going back to recreate whenever you want to access a
new region.
Think about it as the
foundation upon which you build your platform and message when venturing into
the global market.
In fact,
internationalization is the first phase of the globalization process, with the
next phase being the localization of your platform to connect with your target
market.
Internationalization could
be as simple as incorporating more illustrations to your product to ensure that
it is easily understood by anyone, or it could be as complex as ensuring that
the design layout of your website can cater to different languages (LTR or
RTL).
How do you
internationalize?
Carrying out
internationalization is a lot easier said than done. And the process, like
anyone familiar with any foundational activity, needs to be conceptualized and
performed at the early stages.
Take a scenario where you
want to adapt your website or software to a global audience. A process like
this involves early planning and the active collaboration between several
participants; Translators, Copywriters, Web developers, UI designers, etc.
Internationalization, in
this case, would involve developing a standard format for your;
- Content: How do your translators and
copywriters create your brand’s message so that no critical information is
lost in translation? - Data Encoding: Your web development team would
need to adopt a more consistent form of storing numbers, text and other
data. - User Interface: Creating a standardized UI
interface that is not only responsive to content changes but is easy to
understand by your international audience irrespective of their region
The bigger picture (How
does internationalization affect the user experience)
In the end, it all boils
down to how your product or service is received by your international audience,
with the user experience plays a critical role here.
Although
internationalization does not directly affect the experience of your product,
it sets the stage for localization and makes it easier for your product or
services to deliver a delightful user experience.
The end product of
internationalization would be a globalized product or service that has
established a meaningful connection with its satisfied consumer.
Conclusion
Expanding your product or
service into the international scene requires consumer focus for you to stand
out and succeed. But the process of focusing on the end-user needs to be
efficient. By effectively combining internationalisation with localisation you
are one step closer to a globalised product that the international audience
enjoys.
Are you ready to go
global? At TranslationsinLondon, we have an array of
consumer-focused services that takes you anywhere you want to go in the world.
English (UK)