Localization Testing Cheat Sheet - Mind Map
I recently came back from an awesome conference - QBiz 2016 (http://www.qbiz.se/) organized by ADDQ Consulting in Stockholm, Sweden. I did a mobile testing workshop attended by testers in Sweden. It was a great experience and apart from me sharing my knowledge on mobile testing, I got to learn a lot from the conversations I had with other testers who were at the conference and from people who worked at ADDQ Consulting.
A lot of people contacted me after my workshop to get more details about things I talked about at the conference and one thing a lot of people wanted my thoughts on was "Localization Testing".
Imagine working for a company who have clients all over the world in Asia, Europe, United States and other locations? How would you test features in the app which would have to vary according to the region where the app is used? Here is a quick cheat sheet of things you can do in terms of localization testing I learnt from testing various mobile applications
Keypads - Based on the language, there are different keypads which need to pop up for different fields on iOS and Android. You can change the keypads on the phone explicitly too - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202178
Translation - If your client say is in German, you want to ensure all the text which are present say in english are translated in different pages. I was testing a german app so had to ensure all the text are translated correctly and in a meaningful way. The translation should make sense in the specific language
Currency - I have tested travel booking apps. In those apps we need to ensure the right currency signs are showing and the rates are correctly converted from US to say Euros/Kronos/Thai Bhatt/HongKong Dollars etc.
Licensing - I have tested digital streaming content apps, based on the location there are some restrictions on contents you can view and cannot view. E.g Netflix US subscription cannot be used in Sweden. You may want to check for licensing issues
Maps - If you apps used Google maps, then ensure the right location is showing in the google maps when you put current location.
Rendering - Check for rendering issues. E.g say you have pop ups, after translating from english to say german/swedish do they fit correctly within the screen or within the button?
Localization Strings - If you have apps then you need to ensure the builds have all the necessary localization strings (the text conversion files) included in it
Time Format - Does the app handle change of time from US time to Europe/Asia time correctly? If I am using a travel app and book a flight when I am in the US, When I view the same reservation in say -Sweden what time should it show? You want to make sure the timing specified explicitly mentions Greenwich mean time or whatever time to avoid this confusion
Phone number and zipcodes - are always different in different countries. You definitely want to check this aspect anywhere in your mobile application or website
Links - If you have different links in the mobile apps or websites, clicking on it you should be taken to the right page specific to the region. E.g. I was testing an insurance app in the US and one of the links on clicking on it, took me to the canadian terms and conditions site instead of USA terms and conditions.
Credit Card processing - If you use an international card on your app does it work? I found an issue where I had an Indian credit card and used it on a US website, it was unable to handle that transaction
The above are some of the things I have done in terms of localization testing in my experience. If you have more ideas please share it in the comments section
