ABSTRACT
This chapter provides readers with an overview of central factors to which individuals should pay attention when developing materials for broader, international audiences. It examines key aspects that technical communicators must consider when working on products for audiences/users in other nations. The chapter describes what international “target markets” are and reviews the phases of the process for adapting materials for different markets. The localization process involves a number of modifications on products and content at the linguistic, cultural, and technical level, and such modifications are done to account for differences in distinct markets. Internationalization happens only once and at the stage of product design and development of materials for broader, international markets. The concept of locale is central to the localization process because it defines the kind of translation and adaptation needed for a software or web product to be used and sold in a target locale.
