Localization and geographic visibility of mobile apps
The geographic availability and localization of mobile apps is one of the decisions we make for the sake of globalization. Local markets are often either too small or too crowded with competitors for us to easily gain a sufficient share of users. But globalization does not mean unification of the app, rather the opposite. We remember that our users speak different languages, belong to different cultural and social groups, and have unique preferences that make them different from others.
The success of distributing our application to other markets depends on how accurately we can adapt and localize to the current realities of a particular region of our target audience.
While studying the issue of distributing the app to other markets, we came across an interesting term - glocalization. This is something between equidistant and rather opposite concepts such as globalization and localization. It is this principle that we try to be guided by when pursuing a strategy for distributing our application to other countries. Without losing the main concept of the product, it is necessary to take into account the local characteristics of users. Let's figure it out.
Localization of mobile apps - what is it?
Localizing an app involves creating a product and then positioning it for specific regions. We develop content, visual elements, and promotion strategy taking into account local characteristics, cultural preferences and social affiliation of our target audience for a specific geography. We don’t just translate, we localize, that is, we adapt our product and its presentation to a specific market.
Translation can be one of the most difficult stages of localization, and the main thing here is not to flatter yourself with the hope that automatic translation will work in our favor. There are many examples where simply interpreting the name of an application led to its complete distortion.
Difficulties in translation may affect the audience's perception of our product, not in the best light. What can we say about the mobile market, because even the adaptation of the names of films and books does not speak about automatic translation, let's remember at least the series of films Die Hard, which was translated quite differently just because “die hard” is actually an idiom. Many brands and large manufacturers have encountered the problem of localizing and adapting the names of their products, which has led to the fact that in different countries even a car model may sound completely different from the original source.
All this leads us to the idea that already at the moment of creating a product it would be nice to understand whether it will simply remain local or will go on to conquer the world.
Statista, in its latest study about the prevalence of languages on the Internet and in real life, came to very interesting conclusions:
It follows from this that localizing your app into several major languages will easily allow us to reach the widest possible part of the target audience.
Now we can move from language issues to the visual component. The brain loves images and responds to visuals faster and more deeply than to text. That is why, during localization, we will adapt not only the name and texts of the application page, but also carry out visual optimization. Icons, images, colors, complexity or simplicity of screenshots - everything depends on the region of our target audience.
Cultural difference in the perception of visual elements
Differences in cultural and social perception of visual elements can present us with surprises where we would not expect them at all. And now we are not talking about color schemes or symbols, but even about the visual design of metadata - emoji. They even tried to call them an international universal language, but are they so unambiguous?
Emoji and their meaning in different geos
