INTERNATIONALIZATION

Internationalization is the process of designing a product so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes. It ensures that the product functions in more than one language.

Before a product can be properly localized, it should be internationalized to handle multiple languages and cultural conventions, such as different time and date formats, double-byte characters, support for international currencies, etc. Internationalization, also involves designing a product to accommodate the text expansion found in many non-English languages. Such considerations should be built into the product from the early design stage, as retrofitting for localization can be a costly and time-consuming process.