In-context linguistic quality assurance

Answers to your LQA questions

• Why is LQA important in localization projects?

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  Depending on the context they appear in, texts can and should be localized in a number of different ways. As it is not always possible for the linguists localizing a product to know exactly where something will appear (i.e. its context), LQA becomes a fundamental process to account and plan for in order to ensure that the texts are appropriate for the situation they appear in, and to help give the product as a whole one final round of polish.
• At what stage of development should I plan for LQA?

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  LQA can be planned in different ways: it can be planned for after the localization process is concluded, giving the testing team access to the whole game in one go, to be checked progressing roughly as a final user would; alternatively it can be planned iteratively, meaning organizing smaller LQA rounds focusing on specific parts of the product as their localization is finalized [this second option is especially suited for ongoing, 'live' products with recurring content updates].
• What does the LQA process involve?

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  In a typical LQA round involves at least one tester per-language being given access to the production-level product (which is in essence the same product a final user will eventually have access to, but in most cases than not with additional debug, or 'cheat' options available), which they will check and test in the agreed areas for any and all linguistic issues (grammatical, syntax or contextual errors, for example) as well as visual artifacts or corruptions that might affect the product. They will report each issue they encounter and either provide a correction (in the case of linguistic issues) or a detailed description and visual references (i.e. screenshots) in case of visual or non-linguistic issues. These corrections, which are also applied to the text files of the product, and reports are then made available to the client, for them to implement the fixes and work on those non-linguistic issues that can only be fixed on the developer side.
• Can LQA be performed for software, games, websites, and marketing content?

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  LQA can be performed on virtually any product that needs localization and has a visual application beyond the texts in a spreadsheet or word document.
• Which languages do you support for LQA services?

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  We support a wide range of languages for all our services, from EU languages to Americas to Asia, and if you require a language we do not cover yet, with a bit of lead time we can find appropriate resources for any language.