ABSTRACT
Many people believe translation and localization mean the same thing. Localization, building and customizing a product to a specific market, starts during the user research phase and translation occurs later in the development cycle. The degree of localization or translation of a product depends on market and legal requirements. These requirements vary by company and by products within a company. Translation is the process of putting all or part of the user information into the native language of the target market. The usefulness and success of the translations directly relate to how well the English text is written. Machine translation or translation memory systems need a lot of input in the beginning from the writer and editor. The translation process is a process within a process–the manual development and product localization processes. Some companies place the costs for translations in each product’s budget.
