The complete guide

to design-stage
localization
‘’ With design-stage localization, I’ve eliminated my operational
workload and can now focus on performance to improve the
overall experience for our customers.”

Romain Dahan
Product Manager

Whithings case study 1

When you talk to fast-growing companies that are agile and rely on continuous
development to some degree, you’ll quickly realize that most haven’t maintained
processes and technologies to integrate localization into their product
development workflow.

As a UX writer, designer, developer, product manager, marketer, or linguist, do

you know how you can align as a team and build a unified localization workflow
that starts at the design stage? And do you know how to implement it to
build a better experience, improve your product for a global audience, and—
ultimately—grow your business?

Design-stage localization can help with this. So, let’s jump straight in.

We wrote this guide to give you:

A complete introduction to design-stage localization

Real examples of design-stage workflows

A video guide to help you get set up

A checklist to help you successfully implement localization at the design

stage

Real case studies and practical examples

This way, you can see for yourself how valuable design-stage localization is when
it comes to continuously releasing localized products and growing your global
presence.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 2

What’s Inside

1. Design-stage localization 101 4

2. Top design-stage challenges for localization teams 15

3. Design-stage case studies 19

4. A video guide to help you get setup 34

The complete guide to design-stage localization 3

Chapter 1:
Design-stage localization 101
Design-stage localization is a powerful way to continuously release fully localized
products like mobile apps, web apps, and games. It allows for the creation
of designs suitable for multiple languages and bridges the gap between the
designers, developers, content designers, and linguists working on localization.

What is design-stage localization?

Design-stage localization entails starting the localization process along-side the
concepting phase in product development. The process goes like this:

Designers start with a mockup, finalize the UI in the source language, and then
linguists begin translating the UI before the feature goes to development. This
means that fully localized prototypes are created ahead of time.

The most important thing to understand is that localization shifts from

post-release (an afterthought) to pre-release (fully embedded in the product
development process).

The easiest way to grasp design-stage localization is a continuous cycle with 8

key steps. Here’s a high-level overview of the workflow:

Let’s take a closer look at the steps involved in the above flow:

The complete guide to design-stage localization 4

 Designers create the Copywriters finalize Translators provide Translations are
UI and push keys with copy in source high-quality translations pulled back to design
screenshots to Lokalise language thanks to context provided tool

Feature is tested by Developers pull the Feature goes to Designer reviews and
QA team translated files development optimizes the UI

Positive feedback
Feature is released in
from userbase in all
multiple markets
markets

Design-stage localization is all about effective collaboration between

your stakeholders before you build. If you’re using Lokalise, you can use
the dedicated plugins for Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD so your designers,
developers, and linguists can work with visual context and have overall
coherence in the product experience.

In essence, the full scale of design-stage localization embeds localization at the

beginning of your product development workflow to streamline key naming, file
handling, and error management.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 5

Types of design-stage workflows
The good news is that design-stage localization isn’t a one-size-fits-all
approach. It’s flexible and works fluidly with your existing tech stack,
workflows, and use cases.

Advanced workflow using Figma/Sketch & Lokalise

Let’s look at a more advanced workflow that allows product teams to

accelerate the design-stage localization process further.

Using Figma/Sketch and Lokalise, localization teams can design mockups

suitable for multiple languages without translations, and development can
begin in parallel to translations.

Here’s an overview of how it works:

The complete guide to design-stage localization 6

Now, let’s take a closer look at what this looks like in practice:

1. The designers/content team create the design with key names in Figma/
Sketch.
2. The keys and base language are pushed to Lokalise.
3. Developers get the keys from a duplicate page in Figma/Sketch.
4. Linguists work in Lokalise throughout the entire flow.

The flow above allows designers and developers to dovetail their efforts for a
localization cycle that follows the pace of development and of each feature release.

Instead of waiting for translations, development can start with key names reflected
in the design as opposed to language values. Plus, teams can test the design using
machine translation and set character limits to ensure that the design won’t break.

The Withings workflow

This is a workflow pioneered by the product team at Withings. It allows for
developers to focus on developing the product in parallel with the translation
workflow.

Download

The complete guide to design-stage localization 7

1. Design & concept validation process is done in Figma
2. Design is consolidated in Figma
3. Product Owner (PO) pushes keys and screenshots to Lokalise via Figma
plugin & pulls existing strings for content validation
4. Base language content qualification performed in Lokalise
5. If PO deletes a key, the dev team is notified via Slack
6. PO creates a task in a project branch for in-house translation cycles and
in-house translators are notified via the Trello integration (French/English/
German)
7. PO creates a second task in a separate project branch to inform LSP to
translate all remaining languages (LSP integration via webhooks)
8. Once task is closed, keys are automatically tagged & Slack notification is
triggered
9. PO then merges branches so that strings are ready 1 week before release to
production environment

See it live:
Join us for a discussion on the Nimdzi podcast on September 28,
2021, to learn about the above workflow from Romain Dahan, Product
Manager at Withings. You’ll leave with Romain’s insights on the
workflow and what it takes to get stakeholders on board.

Register here.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 8

Whitelabel workflow
The below is a workflow that some of our customers use to whitelabel their apps.

Download

1. The Figma plugin is used to create keys and screenshots, with 1 Figma
design per brand connected to 1 Lokalise project
2. Slack notifications are triggered when new keys are created.
3. PO selects newly created keys and creates a Lokalise Translation Order.
4. Lokalise translators translate on platform & communicate via built-in chat.
5. Slack notification is sent out once the translation cycle is complete.
6. When any key export is initiated for a brand-specific project, a download
is initiated from the generic project and the option to include keys from
brand-specific project is selected.
7. Mobile bundles: uses webhooks & API calls to automatically download new
bundles when changes in keys are detected.
8. Review cycle is done in-house on pre-production mobile app versions.
9. PO is notified and manually changes the strings based on feedback.
10. Once a pre-production app has passed in-house review, new releases are
pushed to production.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 9

 How to get started
To create a unified localization workflow at the design stage, you can use
a localization platform like Lokalise to integrate your design tools and the
rest of your tech stack.

Visit our designers page to learn how to get started.

(P.S: Try it free to see the design integrations in action).

What types of companies and products does it suit best?

Success stories from our customer base show that fast-growing, agile companies
that rely on CI/CD to any degree are natural adopters of design-stage localization.

Companies that rely on continuous development for products like mobile apps,
web apps, and games already have the processes and technologies to fit design-
stage localization into their workflows.

That said, our research also shows that companies that are between levels 1 and 2
of the localization maturity model can easily implement and benefit from design-
stage localization.

In short, tech-savvy companies with strong product teams will find it especially
helpful for accelerating localization, centralizing collaboration, and achieving their
international expansion goals.

When is it the right approach?

If your priority is quickly launching an MVP and you only operate in a few other
markets that are similar to your core market, a traditional localization workflow
will likely be more effective.

But if you’ve found a product-market fit and want to deliver great UX in multiple
markets simultaneously, then design-stage localization is the optimal workflow
for your stakeholder and company.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 10

Why should companies start localizing at the design stage?

When implemented correctly, design-stage localization almost always results in

higher team productivity, more collaboration, faster time to market, and lower
risks than traditional approaches.

The value of design-stage localization

When Romain Dahan created Withings’ design-stage localization workflow,
the most important thing he did was align his stakeholders on the goal of
localization: providing a great digital experience for customers globally.

In the long run, your most important assets are your customers and team. Bearing
that in mind, here’s how design-stage localization helps you collaborate effectively
with your team and deliver the best possible product for your customers.

1. Streamline collaboration, align stakeholders, and get early feedback

Efficient, simple collaboration and excellent communication are key to building
strong partnerships between localization and the parts of your business that
require localization support.

With design-stage localization, you can streamline collaboration between your

designers, developers, product team, and content team. Your team can work
together before you build, while ensuring everyone is working from the same set
of information and is focused on the same priorities.

In the words of Keith Vaz, Interaction Designer at the super app Gojek:

“
“ UX writers can now begin the work a lot earlier and
the workflow has urged us to work closely with each
other to get things on track.”

The complete guide to design-stage localization 11

With real-time translation updates in Figma, there is now a single source of truth
for copy for both designers and copywriters.

This means, “no more having to go through several hefty Google Sheets, hunting
for one line of copy and then having to manually copy-paste it into the designs.”
No more sending emails to ask, “which is the latest wireframe?” or “is it done yet?”

2. Improve UI quality and get early feedback

Without leaving Figma, your team can create fully localized prototypes to get the
gist of what the localized environment will look like. Translators can then see the
entire UI as they translate content in Lokalise.

This means you can improve the quality of UI localization because:

a) You can spot cultural and localization issues before you build
b) UX writers aren’t always limited to the design as designers can make changes
quickly to accommodate copy
c) Adjustments in both copy and design happen together

Aside from eliminating unnecessary costs borne by making adjustments post-

release, it allows product teams to collect valuable feedback from users, local
marketing teams, and other stakeholders before releasing a product in multiple
markets:

“Translating our designs to our users’ native languages for user testing sessions is
super seamless now,” says Keith Vaz. He adds that, “earlier it would take a few hours
for the UX writer or the designer to manually edit all the copy on each screen.”

3. Prevent costly design breaks and localization errors

If you’re designing something for multiple regions, you can imagine how re-
adapting the product interface can slow down the entire localization process.
It creates friction in designer-developer relations, unnecessary work for project
managers and translators, and makes shipping localized products quickly (without
errors) nearly impossible.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 12

While designers can easily alter the design, developers have a much bigger job in
reworking the code to reflect the new design. Often, this forces teams to choose
between delivering localized products that don’t look great or shipping late.

When you integrate designers into the localization flow early on, teams can
quickly and easily check whether the design functions correctly across all target
languages and make amendments pre-development. Here’s how:

1. Linguists working with visual context can request design amendments to

accommodate the translated text. Alternatively, you can set character limits to
easily communicate constraints to linguists/UX writers and avoid excess copy
that can break the design.

2. Once the content is finished or almost finished, designers can pull the
translated text back into the design and perform design QA before the product
goes to development.

And remember, if the content does change, you’ll be able to adjust both the copy
and design. Plus, you’ll be able to leverage the translation memory to offset any
costs caused by translating new content.

Did you know?: Resolving bugs in the design stage is 10x more cost effective than
making adjustments after release.
Resolve bugs early 5

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The complete guide to design-stage localization 13

4. Get to market faster and match localization with agile development
Working in localization, you may have experienced the frustration of the process’
reputation for apparently being slow, manual, and complicated.

Well, design-stage localization changes that.

Take this example from Luisana Valero, UX Designer at Elli (VW Group), who says
they are now able to “deliver assets about 5 times faster for multi-language asset
creation (app screens).”

At Gojek, Keith Vaz says, “accommodating manual copy-pasting ends up being a

job for a day or two.” He adds that with the new workflow, this time should be cut
to just an hour or two.

With faster turnaround times and a process that’s embedded in product

development, keeping up with continuous development becomes manageable.
Teams working on localization are no longer slow and complicated and can
partner with product teams to seamlessly marry localization and development.

Bearing that in mind, we were especially delighted to hear how Withings managed
to create an efficient l10n process involving their product team, designers,
developers, and content team.

In the words of their product manager, Romain Dahan, “By migrating to Lokalise,
we’ve accelerated the delivery of new localized features by 90%.” He tells us that
Lokalise’s Figma integration served as the key to transforming the localization
process at Withings and building a design-stage workflow.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 14

Chapter 2:
Top design-stage challenges
for localization teams
You might be asking “should I use machine translation to get an idea of what a
localized prototype will look like?”… “can our developers remain in control of
key naming conventions?”… “will this add to our designers’ (already very full)
workload?”

Whatever the case, you likely have questions. And we’re here to answer them.
For this discussion, let’s start by laying out the top design-stage challenges.

Shifting the way you work and ramping up stakeholders

A design-stage process demands something from every department and

implementing it successfully requires a shift in mindset and how you work.

Shifting localization from a one-off activity that happens post-release to a

continuous process that happens pre-release impacts your stakeholders – how
you collaborate, share information, and function as a team.

Think about it like this: If your UX writer is the last in the pipeline of the design
process before development handoff, it will require some initial coordination
to ensure that they start their work earlier in the localization process. The same
applies to other team members who have certain dependencies that need to
take place before they begin their work.

The challenge is coordinating this shift between all the stakeholders – even if
they aren’t entirely new to localization, it requires some basic onboarding to
educate and ramp up your team. For example, designers may not be familiar
with some newer terms like ‘keys.’ They may require some training on how to link

The complete guide to design-stage localization 15

keys to the text elements in the design—and it will likely take some initial effort
to get them up to speed.

Breaking silos between tools, processes, and teams

Aside from inconsistent systems and processes, many of the problems that arise
in localization programs are due to the fact that designers, developers, content
teams, and localization teams work in silos.

When it comes to localization, there are four things that should be shared and
integrated in some form. They are:

1. Lokalise
2. Design tools
3. The wireframes of the entire UI being localized
4. Your localization team

It’s simple: All of the above have shared processes that work in tandem to create
a unified, continuous localization process that starts at the design stage. In
an ideal world, your prototypes will live in a design tool with existing APIs or
connectors to your TMS. You will also need defined collaboration rules to help
you function better as a team.

Centralizing tools and processes

Centralizing tools and changing processes is hard in the short term and your
team might not want to change.

Some larger companies have designers, developers, and other stakeholders

that work in different ways. For example, one multinational e-commerce
company present in 17 markets has several different design teams which all
have their own individual processes.

In fact, it’s fairly common for companies to have multiple systems and

The complete guide to design-stage localization 16

processes for managing content and prototyping product flows, especially
in larger organizations. Aside from being an obstacle to effective team
collaboration, multiple tools and inconsistent systems will create scalability
issues further down the road.

Ideally, you will have a TMS that is connected to the design tool (e.g., Figma)
you use company-wide. Often, companies use their TMS as the single source
of truth for content in multiple languages, along with the English equivalent.
However, some companies use their design tool as a single source of truth.

Bottom line: You need tools and processes that are truly central (and
integrated) company-wide to get a design-stage localization process working
like a well-oiled machine. Plus, ensure your TMS has integrations with your
existing tech stack.

Conflicting key naming conventions

In some companies, engineers are the ones who remain in control of key nam-
ing conventions. They may already have the bulk of their core product localized
and a specific key naming pattern they would like to continue using.

The truth is, there is no single best practice here. But the good news is that a
design-stage process accommodates flexible ways of working that suit various
team structures, workflows, and tech stacks.

You may decide not to automate key names completely or create keys at the
design stage and continue having your developers create keys instead. For
example, one company decided to stick with engineers creating keys instead
of them coming from Figma first.

The bottom line is: you need a process to align key naming with design
systems and ensure you don’t have conflicting key naming conventions or are
not left waiting for engineers to create keys that will be linked to the design.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 17

Note: If you’re using Lokalise, you have various options to continue using your
legacy key naming conventions, which we cover below. We’ll also walk you through
exactly how it works in our complete guide to design-stage localization.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 18

Chapter 3:
Design-stage localization case
studies
Design-stage localization is powerful, but don’t just take our word for it: here are
a couple of case studies to inspire you to take action.

We’ve covered the value of design-stage localization above, but here’s a quick
recap – you can:

Streamline collaboration, align stakeholders, and get early feedback

Match localization with the pace of agile development

Prevent costly design breaks and resolve errors pre-release

Improve UI quality

Launch in multiple markets simultaneously

Now, let’s look at two examples for some quantifiable benefits in some of these areas.

90% faster feature rollout with design-stage localization at Withings

The context: Withings is a connected health pioneer that is localizing their

Health Mate app (currently available in 190 countries and 11 languages). They
deliver 3 features per release, and each originally took around 10 hours of
manual localization work to create and search for keys, link duplicates, extract
keys to create tasks for reviewers, and so on. Instead of focusing on strategy,
the team at Withings was struggling to match quality localization with the pace
of development.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 19

The challenge design-stage localization solved – Implementing design-stage
localization with Lokalise & Figma helped the team to:

Seamlessly integrate localization into their product development

workflow

Break silos between departments, so teams can collaborate with overall

context and coherence

Spot localization defects before building as linguists have context for the
entire UI

Speed up the process as developers can start building without waiting for
translations

Create an efficient l10n process involving the content team, designers,

and developers.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 20

The results: The product manager at Withings went from 10 hours to 1
hour of task management spent on localizing a new feature. Plus, there
are significantly fewer keys to go through each month, which means more
time spent on improving localization quality. The bottom line: Withings gets
localized products to market faster with far fewer “local customer complaints
about translation quality.”

Read the full case study.

Localization related bugs at DBS fell from 30% to 8%

The context: DBS is one of the leading banks in Southeast Asia, serving consumer
markets in Singapore, China, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

The challenge design-stage localization solved: By using the Figma plugin, the
l10n workflow has become much smoother and helped the team to:

Solve issues with text not fitting into the design

Reduce endless back-and-forths in email threads

The complete guide to design-stage localization 21

 Give writers and developers context for what each key is used for in the
design

Remove confusion about which is the latest version for wireframes

The results: “After introducing Lokalise, localization-related bugs fell from

30% to below 8%. It helped improve the efficiency of the localization process
and the team and made it a lot easier for DBS to create relevant, localized user
experiences for global customers.

Read the full case study.

Key metrics to measure the success & goals of design-stage

localization

There are myriad metrics and key performance indicators used to measure the
efficiency of localization efforts. This is where most organizations use KPIs or
measurements, such as:

Key metrics:

On-time deliveries

Number of linguistic or technical quality errors

Project delays or extension requests

Average turnaround time

Time to market

Adherence to budget

The complete guide to design-stage localization 22

Business metrics look at the bigger picture and consider the contributions that
localization makes towards overall business goals. Since the goal is never just
to localize, what specific business metrics are the best to look at?

The most obvious candidate is ROI. While it consists of hard-to-quantify

factors, implementing a design-stage localization flow should impact ROI when
factoring in localization costs.

That said, whereas ROI is very important, it doesn’t always come down to
that. It might be creating an equitable experience for customers around the
globe, delivering delight in the form of native experiences, or building brand
awareness.

The bottom line is: you should align any new strategy with clear goals based
on your primary business goals.

The bottom line is: you should align any new strategy with clear goals based
on your primary business goals.

Who is it for? Your team in the design-stage localization process

There are several stakeholders that should make up every localization team. The
localization process typically involves four primary groups of stakeholders:

1. Designers and software developers

2. Product, project, and localization managers
3. Copywriters and linguists
4. QA specialists and reviewers

Let’s examine these roles, how they change, and how they impact the
design-stage localization process.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 23

Designers

As a designer, you already prototype user experiences in the base language

and check to see if text fits within buttons, how layouts change with different
devices, and make design decisions based on the best product flows. The only
difference in a design-stage localization workflow is that you are prototyping
experiences for global customers, simultaneously.

Here’s what changes:

Key responsibility

Ensuring your product looks and feels how it should resonate with your
global customers.

Skills

• Great organizational and time- • Ability to adjust the design according to

management skills feedback

• Creative and technical skills for

developing localized concepts,
graphics, and layouts

• Specific knowledge of UI and UX design

(if the project requires)

• Ability to clearly communicate with all

team members

The complete guide to design-stage localization 24

Main challenges

• Quality issues due to localization after • Lack of context and the inability to
the design stage create relevant visual experiences

• Making sure translated text fits the • Jeopardized design quality because of
design and design changes an inefficient localization process (e.g.,
poor communication, idle waiting time,
• Ensuring the localization is appropriate inefficient asynchronous collaboration)
for the target market’s culture (e.g.,
avoiding human imagery for Islamic • Preserving brand identity while still
audiences) adapting to new markets.

• Ensuring right-to-left languages are

suited to the design

Changes in the way you work

• Adopt a leading role in multilingual • Eliminating repetitive tasks like manual

product development copy-pasting to test designs

• Ability to collaborate with overall • Understanding how the length of

coherence of product experience and text for different languages impacts
avoid working in silos the digital experience during the
prototyping process
• Begin localization work earlier in the
product development process to
resolve localization errors (like design
breaks) in a much more agile way, prior
to building

The complete guide to design-stage localization 25

Software
Developers

As a developer working in an agile product development team that relies

on CI/CD to some degree, design-stage localization is a natural fit for your
development workflow.

Whether you want to remain in control of the key naming convention or pass on
this responsibility to the localization or project manager is a flexible choice you
can agree on with your team. The most important thing is that you will no longer
be bombarded with Jira tickets related to localization. Here’s what will change:

Key responsibility

Initiating the localization process by adding string identifiers (i.e., keys) to the product code,
as well as fixing bugs and taking full care of the back-end of your digital product.

Skills

• Great knowledge of different program- • Great knowledge of localization tools

ming languages as well as ability to and integration tools such as API, CI/CD,
internationalize code in the respective etc. (Knowing how to connect them to a
programming language chosen translation management system
is a must)
• An eye for detail and problem-solving
skills • Comprehensive knowledge of content
management systems and different
• Communication skills and ability to work technologies (e.g., publishing and editing
in a cross-functional team software)

• Open-minded, hands-on, and result

oriented

The complete guide to design-stage localization 26

Main challenges

• Synchronizing translations between the • Using placeholders and plural keys

TMS and code repository properly

• Downloading new translations in proper • Previewing translations in the design

formats, and monitoring for changes stage

• Finding duplicate translations • Providing context for translators

• Allowing translators to work on features

in parallel

Changes in the way you work

• Start working earlier in the localization • Eliminate time spent providing context
process to translators as context is provided
directly via design tool integrations
• Ability to work closely with product,
designers, and the content team before • Ability to begin builds without
the build translations in more advanced design-
stage workflows
• Have more context of where translation
keys are being used in the design

• Eliminate time spent correcting builds

to fit new translations

The complete guide to design-stage localization 27

Product, localization,
and project managers

If you’re a product, localization, or project manager, here are some useful

questions you should ask yourself about your existing workflow:

• How much time are you spending on task management and reviewing design
bugs?
• Are different team members able to work in parallel rather than waiting for
each other to complete work?
• How is this sequential approach impacting delivery time?

You want to be focused on product development, improving localization quality,

and getting localized products to market faster – here’s what will change with a
design-stage process:

Key responsibility

Educating all stakeholders in the localization process about your product while also
identifying requirements, tools, technologies, and the overall strategy.

Skills

• Great leadership and managerial skills • Very result oriented

• Ability to prioritize, establish procedures, • High level of social and emotional

and set a system for tracking progress intelligence

• Ability to optimally allocate resources • Ability to do qualitative customer

research and establish a strong product
• Agility, strategic, and analytics skills roadmap for international expansion

The complete guide to design-stage localization 28

Main challenges

• Delays caused by poor process • Having the time to work on product

efficiency and translations arriving late development without worrying about
how to localize
• Delays caused by the multiple iterations
needed in QA after the translation files • Ensuring the team stays motivated
have been received from the translator despite bottlenecks

• Converting localization files that come

in different formats from different
translators

Changes in the way you work

• Reduced time spent on project • The risk of a bad product/market fit is

management and an increased focus significantly reduced
on strategy
• Collaboration between designers,
• Establishing new processes, developers, managers, and translators
documentation, collaboration rules, and is streamlined, back and forths are
training the product team on shifting eliminated, as well as idle waiting time
workflow

• Clearly explaining to your stakeholders

the impact of implementing a design-
stage localization workflow

The complete guide to design-stage localization 29

Content Team

The biggest shift for copywriters and linguists is that they can work together
with product, designers, and developers before the build. That means you can
ensure the overall coherence of the brand and product experience to create
delightful, global experiences.

Key responsibility

Preparing all the content that needs to be localized and/or participating in transcreation
to ensure it’s well adapted to the target market.

Skills

• Strong strategic and writing skills • Ability to follow the set quality and style
guidelines and switch between different
• Team player and great communicator tones of voice

• Responsive to feedback and able to work • Good time-management skills

in a fast-paced environment

• Ability to create and/or transform

content that’s culturally adapted while
still on brand

• Ability to incorporate storytelling and

use copywriting to create an emotional
response and trigger a desired action
from the target locale

The complete guide to design-stage localization 30

Main challenges

• Making sure copy sounds good in all • Issues that come with outsourcing (e.g.,
languages tiring back and forths, missed deadlines
due to inefficiency)
• Compromising translated copy quality
due to character limitations imposed by • Tracking the progress of campaigns
designs
• Scaling without jeopardizing quality
• Getting access to translations for
temporary app/web content (e.g., sales • Adapting content culturally
enablement content or specific content
campaigns) • Reporting

• Constant translations

Changes in the way you work

• Begin work earlier in the localization • Linguists work in Lokalise throughout

process as opposed to being the last the entire localization process
step in the pipeline before dev handoff

• Ability to request design changes to

accommodate copy that will resonate
best with the target audience

• Have visibility over the entire UI and can

better understand the flow and what is
being built

The complete guide to design-stage localization 31

Quality Assurance
Experts and
Reviewers

In a design-stage flow, QA is a collaborative process between the entire team. All

the stakeholders can see the fully localized wireframes and share their feedback
pre-release. The biggest shift is that teams must agree on quality before
anything is built.

Key responsibility

Establishing a rigorous review process through proofreading and testing in order to deliver
the agreed translation quality.

Skills

• Native speaker and/or advanced • Strong verbal and written

knowledge of a language and relevant communication skills
domain
• Deep knowledge of the product to
• Very detail oriented, with a strong identify language key changes and their
problem-solving mindset impacts quickly

• Ability to work in accordance with

quality standards

• Great multitasking and time-

management skills

• Strong sense of ownership

• Receptive to feedback and comfortable

with working in a team

The complete guide to design-stage localization 32

Main challenges

• Lack of visibility and standardization • Mastering the steep learning curve

in translation project management when it comes to the localization tech
process stack

• Spending too much time on quality • Not having a standard for performance
assurance due to inefficient workflows and usability testing

• Addressing ambiguity about terms to • Too many manual and repetitive tasks,
ensure translation consistency as well as tiring back and forths

• Difficulty spotting and fixing spelling

and grammatical errors without missing
deadlines

• Poor level of language comprehension

of the locale

Changes in the way you work

• It is possible to catch design breaks • Time to market gets shorter while

at an early stage of the product the quality of both translations and
development process multilingual UX gets higher

• The risk of localization errors in the

product is significantly reduced

The complete guide to design-stage localization 33

How to implement
a design-stage localization
workflow around Lokalise &
your design tools
To implement a design-stage workflow, It’s important to scale things down. Start
by putting together a proof of concept and focus on doing a pilot project using
a localization platform like Lokalise.

If you are new to Lokalise, no problem: there is a free trial you can choose if you
just want to test it out. Head over to our designers page and sign up for a free
account (or look at the pricing page if you want to give the Pro plan a go).

Once you’ve signed up, click on the video below and watch the series that
covers all the steps you need to take to connect your design tools and
automatically start pulling translated strings into your designs:

The complete guide to design-stage localization 34

Now that you have a good understanding of what design-stage localization is
and how it can help you improve your website, it’s time to take action.

Get the free checklist to help you and your team on your localization journey
and create a free account to apply some of the guidelines today.

The complete guide to design-stage localization 35