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“Minor” localization errors, such as untranslated text, missing characters, or poor formatting, can distract or frustrate your users, slow adoption in target markets, and erode trust in your brand. That’s lost opportunities and revenue, and the worst part is that you could have avoided many of these issues with thorough linguistic testing.
Completing linguistic testing helps global businesses identify and fix errors in software and websites before they reach end users. The result? Your product is polished, professional, and ready to provide a great user experience across all markets.
To help you avoid these expensive problems, we’ve compiled a list of the most common mistakes that effective linguistic testing and quality control (QC) can spot before the official launch. But first, let’s see how you can identify them.
Linguistic testing is a meticulous review process conducted after localization that identifies and resolves language-related issues that could sabotage your product’s usability and credibility. Linguistic testing happens in context, which means that experts review the end product as your users see it in its final, built environment.
During this phase, professional linguistic testers run each localized version within its local OS and on relevant browsers, which can affect how the newly adapted content is displayed.
At this stage of the localization process, you’re not focusing on translation errors, since those have already been addressed earlier. Instead, you’re identifying and resolving issues from 2 major categories: linguistic and formatting.
The final version of your localized product must be both culturally appropriate and true to your brand’s voice and style. Linguists handle grammar, accuracy, and style issues in earlier phases, but some issues will only become clear when the text is in its final format.
Linguistic testing examines translated language in context for:
For example, a title in a small font might prompt a linguist to choose more impactful words to create the desired emphasis. Similarly, an image disrupting the flow between paragraphs might require repeating some information to help the reader maintain focus.
Local OS platforms can generate formatting issues that are impossible to catch without linguistic testing. Also, language expansion can cause a real problem once you load the new text into an app: English translated into German, for example, expands by 30%. If the interface design can’t accommodate this expansion, it can lead to cut-off text, overlapping elements, or awkward line breaks, all of which degrade the overall user experience. These problems can include bad line or word breaks, spacing issues, and poor formatting of visual elements like tables and graphs, making your content difficult to read, view, or interact with.
Ideally, you anticipate and plan for text expansion during the design and development phases. This includes providing flexible space for text in UI elements, using scalable design techniques, and ensuring that the layout can adapt to varying text lengths without compromising the aesthetic and functional aspects of the interface.
The linguistic QC process confirms that images, text, tables, forms, graphics, buttons, spacing, and text boxes look their best and provide a user-friendly interactive experience. Additionally, it makes sure that elements like time and date formats, phone numbers, and addresses are correct, ensuring they’re suitable for international use.
One of the most common issues we encounter during linguistic quality testing is untranslated source language content. It’s highly disruptive—imagine scrolling through your new shopping app only to come across a block of text in a language you don’t understand or even an unfamiliar alphabet.
This issue typically arises from:
Text embedded directly in the code that hasn't been externalized for localization
Elements overlooked during the localization process that need translation
Mistakes in deploying localized resource files, resulting in missing translations
No, this is not a linguistic category, but these problems often come to light when a linguistic is taking a look at your product. And because both aspects of a localized product are essential to your end users’ experience, quality assurance testing must include both a linguistic and a technical element. Occasionally, software glitches or inconsistencies can arise from the compilation process, even when the source text is perfectly fine.
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A key component of the process is the team of experts guided by a skilled project manager. This team includes:
This team approach makes sure that the focus is not just on translation quality but also on overall user experience and cultural relevance.
Language service providers implement other testing methods alongside linguistic quality assurance to combat poor localization and translation quality.
Internationalization (globalization) testing focuses on the initial design and development phase. The goal is to ensure that the localized product (software, app, video game, website, etc.) is flexible and easily adapted to different languages and regions.
This review aims to ensure that:
Localization testing ensures that your product functions correctly in different languages and feels native and intuitive to users in various regions.
During localization quality assurance, the testers make sure that:
Linguistic quality assurance allows you to make sure you’re putting your best foot forward and gives you the best chance to differentiate your brand with a high-quality product that resonates with local users and gives a good user experience. Comprehensive software, application, and website translation services must include and linguistic and localization testing.
At Jonckers, we provide our clients with lots of options:
Many types of testing including linguistic, localization, and internationalization
Flexibility in terms of customized solutions, flexible pricing, and team models
End-to-end localization services that integrate with and impact each other
Automations and an AI approach that drives speed, cost, and quality benefits
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