Localizing a phone app

Abstract

In this paper we describe the localization of a phone app that was completed by students enrolled in a university translation program. The app in question serves the university campus community. The experience related herein follows the earlier localization of a COVID-related app, described in Warburton and Krishnan (2021). The current project was larger in scope, covered more subject areas, included additional languages, leveraged different technologies (as a result of lessons learned), and repurposed more linguistic resources. We also reflect on phone apps as a genre and the impacts of their increasing role in society for the localization industry. We demonstrate that the Functionalist approach to translation is appropriate for app localization. However, challenges, both technical and linguistic, point to the need for better internationalization practices and localization tools. The localization of phone apps would benefit from further research of this genre in translation theory.