WHAT IS LOCALISATION?
Localisation (L10N) is the adaptation of products and services to the language, culture and physical requirements of a specific market, which may not necessarily correspond to a country or region, since it may also involve a specific age group or any other population sector. It is the key factor for the success of these products or services on the market in question.
It is often confused with translation, but it is much more than this. For instance: in order to sell a laptop made in Spain in Germany, Ireland, Finland or some other country with a different plug type, it is necessary to include an electrical cable with the correct plug for each of these countries, as the sockets differ from each other. If you told the same joke in each of these countries, different reactions would also be noticed.
There are thousands of examples, from the different meaning each colour signifies in each country (red is the symbol of passion or prohibition in many western countries, it symbolises good fortune in China, and white is the colour of mourning in India) to differences like the metric system, the format of personal details (both surnames are kept in Spain while only one is used in the United Kingdom, and the surname precedes the name in many countries), etc.
Website designers or software developers must take all of these aspects and many more into account when designing their products with respect to the possible localisation of these in the future. This process is known as internationalisation (I18N), and at Acantho we can advise you on this in order to facilitate a subsequent localisation and save you money and time on costly design processes.
Furthermore, our professionals have thorough knowledge of the most cutting-edge localisation tools on the market (Alchemy Catalyst, SDL Passolo Webbudget, etc.), enabling them to successfully undertake any software or website localisation project, be it simple or complex.
At Acantho we have localisation project managers certified by The Institute of Localisation Professionals (TILP).
Furthermore, experts from all these countries collaborate with us:
• United Kingdom
• United States
• And many more.
ARE YOU A FIRST TIME BUYER OF TRANSLATION SERVICES?
Check out our Practical Advice Guide to save time and money and avoid possible frustrations.
Save time and unnecessary design and layout costs
Thanks to our experts and the cutting-edge localisation tools we use, your localised website will be ready for unloading onto the server and your software ready for implementation in its foreign version, without additional design costs and in record time.
This post is also available in Español (es).