What is localization testing?
We live in a global connected world. Yet there are striking differences between cultures. If your website is available globally, you need to take these into account. This is more than the language used. Localization (or L8N) is about ensuring your site takes account of differences in number formats, currencies, and more. For instance, in Germany, dates use DD/MM/YY format and numbers use the format 1.234,56 (rather than 1,234.56).
Localization testing is the process of checking if your site correctly handles all these cultural and linguistic differences.
Why is localization testing essential?
Multinational companies cannot afford to get localization wrong. When incorrect you risk offending users and making your content unintelligible to global viewers. If a new film is being released on November 5th it’s imperative to know if that is shown as 5/11, 11/5, 11.05, etc. Units are another potential issue. For instance, did you know a US pint is 20% smaller than a British pint?
Localization testing is a challenge because of the sheer number of variables to be tested. Moreover, you also need to test whether your site automatically defaults to appropriate localization settings.
How can Functionize help?
The world’s leading AI-powered testing platform
Functionize uses AI to provide one of the smartest test automation platforms available. We make localization testing straightforward. For starters, you can upload a spreadsheet with all the variables you want to test. Then our system runs through each test, validating against the correct data for each locale. Alternatively, you can drive tests from a SQL database. Moreover, Functionize tests are run from our Test Cloud. Each test runs in its own virtual machine and can be launched from anywhere in the world. This makes it easy to test whether your application sets the correct L8N defaults.
