Wearable Technology Localization in 2020

Technology is getting more and more involved in our lives day by day. Wearable technology is one such field too. Be smartwatches, smart glasses, or earpieces; wearable technology is here to stay.
 
However, localization is a big challenge in the market of wearable technology. Some countries do not allow devices with unsupported languages and hence the people who don’t know English are feeling left out. In this scenario, how can a technology company develop a global-friendly wearable?
 
Localization is the ultimate solution to make any product global. Localizing a product might give you a benefit over your competitors, and it can be a massive breakthrough for your product. However, localizing is far more than the literal translation of the text. It includes considering the preferences of users, including interactive text, speech as well as motion, and increasing the overall usefulness of the device.
 
Demographic Preference Research
Very less information is available about consumer preferences related to wearable technology. Especially when we are considering a lot of regions at once, it becomes challenging to inculcate all the commands, voices and tones in device localization. People even have different preferences in the gender of the voice. Some prefer a masculine, authoritative voice, whereas some prefer a soft feminine voice. Apart from that, different cultures have different preferences in the matter of interaction. For example, the North American population preferred an interactive voice, whereas the German population preferred more of a straightforward interaction.
 
Therefore, demographics will help you research and ensure proper service as per the preferences of your customers.
 
Strings & Speech
 
Strings
 
Strings are any text in software read as text, not as a number or a computational operation. The localization of wearable technology starts with the translation of strings. One needs to adjust the spacing and font size of words and characters according to the new language, and here is where string translation becomes useful. In different languages where words may be more prolonged, the translators need to get creative in the use of terms and their synonyms to fit the screen size. Icons are pretty useful in localization.
 
Speech
 
Most wearables use voice as a communication tool. For example, a sports wearable has voice recordings for coaching purposes. This voice might prompt you for drinking water, or checking your heart rate or even tell you about the distance you have covered. On the other side, the voice recognition spectrum of the device might not have some complicated or long sentences in its program. For example, “What is my heart rate?” would rank higher than “How fast is my heart beating?”. Similarly, the user could give the same command in a very different way. An adequately localized device considers every such thing and has an excellent database for the same.
 
Quality Assurance
 
There can be glitches and faults in the localization process, and hence QAQC is necessary. Your product might meet all the requirements, but does it feel comfortable in everyday use? Therefore, field testing post localization is to be taken very seriously even though the device might have passed the field test in its original language, amongst other factors. If you want your wearable to work fine, you need to test, evaluate and improve it over and over again for proper localization.
 
Whatever wearable it might be, you need to consider the above facts and localize your device accordingly.

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