Internationalizing Your App

This talk explores how to make your iOS app global ready and does a brief overview of what internationalization is, some technical tools and tricks you can use to build your app for different languages and cultures, and considers the business side of things if you ever have to sunset your product.

Debuted at UIKonf in Berlin, Germany in May 2019.

Transcript

1. I N T E R N A T I O N A L I Z I N G Y O U R A P P KRISTINA FOX | SENIOR IOS ENGINEER | INTUIT @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO
2. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO hi, I’m Kristina ⛸
3. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO itunes.apple.com/us/app/quickbooks-self-employed/id898076976
4. D E F I N I N G I N T E R N A T I O N A L I Z A T I O N
5. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO A means of adapting computer software to in·ter·na·tion·al·i·za·tion and , different languages regional peculiarities technical requirements of a target locale
6. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO different languages
7. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO https://www.tripsavvy.com/common-temperatures-in-celsius-and-fahrenheit-1481686 different languages
8. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO A means of adapting computer software to in·ter·na·tion·al·i·za·tion and , different languages regional peculiarities technical requirements of a target locale
9. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO regional peculiarities
10. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO regional peculiarities https://twitter.com/Mantia/status/1112004160998666240
11. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO regional peculiarities https://twitter.com/Mantia/status/1112004160998666240
12. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO regional peculiarities https://twitter.com/steipete/status/1110247345185308672
13. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO regional peculiarities https://twitter.com/MrJre/status/1110248925552881667, https://twitter.com/aldoBonillaG/status/1110253379803074563
14. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO regional peculiarities https://sampi.co/successful-china-marketing-lessons-from-evernote/
15. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO A means of adapting computer software to in·ter·na·tion·al·i·za·tion and , different languages regional peculiarities technical requirements of a target locale
16. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO technical requirements String formatters UI constraints Currency formatters Timezones Animations Right-to-left languages Testing Accessibility
17. U S E R R E S E A R C H
18. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO in-depth user studies
19. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO
20. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO
21. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO What people say they do and what they actually do is usually different
22. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO
23. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO other alternatives Cultural consultants Virtual testers
24. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO tester questionnaire - Current vs. new user - Demographic (age, gender, etc.) - Lifestyle - Experience in your field
25. L O C A L I Z A T I O N
26. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO process $
27. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO NSLocalizedString(“Hello world!”, comment: “greeting") localize your strings
28. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO let str = String.localizedStringWithFormat( NSLocalizedString("%d songs played", comment: “[count] songs played“), numSongsPlayed) localize your plural strings
29. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO localize your plural strings <key>NSStringLocalizedFormatKey</key> ... <dict> <key>NSStringFormatSpecTypeKey</key> <string>NSStringPluralRuleType</string> <key>NSStringFormatValueTypeKey</key> <string>d</string> <key>one</key> <string>%d song played</string> <key>other</key> <string>%d songs played</string> </dict>
30. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO finding non-localized strings
31. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO string and number formatters - Currency - Numbers (decimal point and comma markers) - Dates (short, medium and long length) - Quotes - Uppercase, lowercase and capitalization
32. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO changing locales and timezones NSLocale.currentLocaleDidChangeNotification NSNotification.Name.NSSystemTimeZoneDidChange
33. A R C H I T E C T I N G Y O U R C O D E
34. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO simple conditionals let localeId = Locale.current.identifier
 if localeId == "en_US" { print("Hello America") } else if localeId == "de_DE" { print("Hallo Deutschland") }
35. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO simple conditionals Feature 1 Feature 2 Feature 3 Feature 4 let localeId = Locale.current.identifier
 if localeId == "en_US" { print("Hello America") } else if localeId == "de_DE" { print("Hallo Deutschland") } let localeId = Locale.current.identifier
 if localeId == "en_US" { print("Hello America") } else if localeId == "de_DE" { print("Hallo Deutschland") } let localeId = Locale.current.identifier
 if localeId == "en_US" { print("Hello America") } else if localeId == "de_DE" { print("Hallo Deutschland") } let localeId = Locale.current.identifier
 if localeId == "en_US" { print("Hello America") } else if localeId == "de_DE" { print("Hallo Deutschland") }
36. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO global manager
37. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO global manager func getPostalCodeTitle(locale: Locales) -> String { switch locale { case .US: return NSLocalizedString("Zip code", comment: "postal code") case .UK , .AU: return NSLocalizedString("Postcode", comment: "postal code") case .CA: return NSLocalizedString("Postal code", comment: "postal code") } }
38. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO global manager versus
39. H A N D L I N G U I
40. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO https://www.imore.com/ios-9-review
41. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO autolayout constraints https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AutolayoutPG/AnatomyofaConstraint.html
42. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO localized images and animations
43. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO localized images and animations
44. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO UIView.transition ( with: titleLabel, duration: 0.5, options: .transitionFlipFromTop, animations: { self.titleLabel.text = self.titleStringArray[self.titleCounter] }, completion: nil )
45. T E S T I N G
46. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO // App code let button = UIButton() button.setTitle(NSLocalizedString("Save", comment: "Save"), for: .normal) button.accessibilityIdentifier = "saveButton" // UI test code let app = XCUIApplication() let button = app.buttons["saveButton"] XCTAssertTrue(button.exists) localized UI tests
47. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO pseudolanguages
48. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO
49. W E I G H T I N G T H E C O S T S A N D B E N E F I T S
50. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO North America First market Europe Low numbers, high growth Asia Low numbers, low potential app growth
51. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO things to consider - Product performance - Time and effort spent developing and testing in low performing locales
52. @KRSTNFX KRISTINA.IO things to do - Message your users way ahead of time - Pull the app out of the App Store first - Give users a way to backup their data - Shut down backend support
53. 1 2 3 4 User research Localization Architecting your code Handling UI Testing Weighing cost and benefits 5 6 internationalization
54. T H A N K Y O U @KRSTNFX | KRISTINA.IO