Software localization – overlooked or good enough?
(2016) INFM10 20151Department of Informatics
- Abstract (Swedish)
- In a globalized world organizations and the software industry face issues in developing services for distinct markets and regions. National particularities, apart from linguistic conventions of countries and regions, constitute a pertinacious problem in software development as the implications culture have for localization are difficult to anticipate and address.
This thesis strives to shed some light on software localization, investigating if some aspects of the common approach is overlooked. Three practitioners working with mobile development, healthcare IT, analytics software and digital strategy were consulted to address questions about the challenges in software localization. The subjects discussed related to user and contextual... (More) - In a globalized world organizations and the software industry face issues in developing services for distinct markets and regions. National particularities, apart from linguistic conventions of countries and regions, constitute a pertinacious problem in software development as the implications culture have for localization are difficult to anticipate and address.
This thesis strives to shed some light on software localization, investigating if some aspects of the common approach is overlooked. Three practitioners working with mobile development, healthcare IT, analytics software and digital strategy were consulted to address questions about the challenges in software localization. The subjects discussed related to user and contextual research, the localization process and approach, the legislative aspects and the fit of cultural classification.
Analysis of the participants’ notions indicated that understanding users behavior and needs prior to where they come from is important, in which qualitative research with user audiences should be the primary source to inform design requirements. While in some domains the appropriate localization approach is simply to support the language conventions of the different users, the local conventions of any given domain or industry might vary in both obvious and salient ways that needs to be understood. Particularly the legal implications, moving outside the EU, may have complications for the development and launching of electronic products and software as they may be hard to be update with, address and integrate into development. At last, while cultural models simplify and classifies the behavior and user patterns of different societies, they remain not utilized in software localization due to their too general view of different people. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8564028
- author
- Viberg, Emil LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- INFM10 20151
- year
- 2016
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Internationalization, l18n, localization, l10n, cross-cultural design, cross-culture, user interface design, digital services, software, usability
- report number
- INF16-002
- language
- English
- id
- 8564028
- date added to LUP
- 2016-02-03 13:20:49
- date last changed
- 2016-02-03 13:20:49
@misc{8564028,
abstract = {{In a globalized world organizations and the software industry face issues in developing services for distinct markets and regions. National particularities, apart from linguistic conventions of countries and regions, constitute a pertinacious problem in software development as the implications culture have for localization are difficult to anticipate and address.
This thesis strives to shed some light on software localization, investigating if some aspects of the common approach is overlooked. Three practitioners working with mobile development, healthcare IT, analytics software and digital strategy were consulted to address questions about the challenges in software localization. The subjects discussed related to user and contextual research, the localization process and approach, the legislative aspects and the fit of cultural classification.
Analysis of the participants’ notions indicated that understanding users behavior and needs prior to where they come from is important, in which qualitative research with user audiences should be the primary source to inform design requirements. While in some domains the appropriate localization approach is simply to support the language conventions of the different users, the local conventions of any given domain or industry might vary in both obvious and salient ways that needs to be understood. Particularly the legal implications, moving outside the EU, may have complications for the development and launching of electronic products and software as they may be hard to be update with, address and integrate into development. At last, while cultural models simplify and classifies the behavior and user patterns of different societies, they remain not utilized in software localization due to their too general view of different people.}},
author = {{Viberg, Emil}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Software localization – overlooked or good enough?}},
year = {{2016}},
}