Pseudo-localisation is a clever technique used in software testing to simulate how an application will look and behave when translated into other languages, without actually performing a full translation. It is a quick and efficient way to find many common localisation bugs long before real translation work even begins.
How it works is quite simple. You process the original user interface text through a specialised tool. This tool automatically replaces each character with an equivalent from another script, often adding accents or expanding the string length. For example, "Hello World" might become "[Ĥéļļõ Ŵõŕļđ! --á--]" or similar. The extra characters and expanded length mimic what happens in real languages like German or Polish, which often use longer words.
The big benefit here is that these 'fake' translations immediately highlight layout bugs. If text gets cut off, if buttons suddenly overlap, or if character encoding issues crop up, you see it straight away. It's much cheaper and faster to fix these layout and encoding problems in the development phase than waiting for a real translation to come back, only to find the entire user interface has broken. It effectively provides an early warning system for localisation issues, without the cost or time involved in a full translation.
How it works is quite simple. You process the original user interface text through a specialised tool. This tool automatically replaces each character with an equivalent from another script, often adding accents or expanding the string length. For example, "Hello World" might become "[Ĥéļļõ Ŵõŕļđ! --á--]" or similar. The extra characters and expanded length mimic what happens in real languages like German or Polish, which often use longer words.
The big benefit here is that these 'fake' translations immediately highlight layout bugs. If text gets cut off, if buttons suddenly overlap, or if character encoding issues crop up, you see it straight away. It's much cheaper and faster to fix these layout and encoding problems in the development phase than waiting for a real translation to come back, only to find the entire user interface has broken. It effectively provides an early warning system for localisation issues, without the cost or time involved in a full translation.
