imtiazrayhan Find assumptions that make a feature work only for one language or region.
Workflow
- Define target surfaces. Identify platforms, routes, components, notifications, documents, emails, metadata, accessibility labels, server messages, and locales or writing systems in scope.
- Inventory user-facing text. Find hard-coded strings, concatenation, duplicated messages, image text, backend-provided prose, placeholders, and strings assembled from fragments. Preserve translator context and stable identifiers.
- Check message grammar. Verify interpolation, plural and select rules, gender or grammatical variants where required, markup handling, escaping, and full-sentence translation. Avoid English word-order assumptions.
- Inspect locale-aware data. Review date, time, timezone, calendar, number, currency, percentage, address, name, phone, unit, collation, and case conversion behavior. Keep storage formats separate from presentation.
- Test input and text processing. Exercise Unicode, composed and decomposed characters, non-Latin scripts, emoji, long names, input methods, normalization, validation, truncation, search, slugs, exports, and round trips.
- Stress layout. Use a lengthened pseudolocale and narrow viewport to find fixed widths, clipping, overlapping controls, unsafe truncation, and text embedded in graphics. Verify zoom and dynamic type where supported.
- Inspect bidirectional behavior. Test RTL direction, mirroring, mixed-direction text, icons with directional meaning, number and code isolation, focus order, gestures, and charts. Do not mirror brand marks or inherently fixed symbols.
- Review loading and fallback. Check locale detection, explicit user choice, routing, bundle loading, fallback chains, missing-key telemetry, cached variation, server-client consistency, and SEO metadata.
- Define regression coverage. Add or recommend pseudolocale builds, missing-key checks, representative locale tests, screenshots for critical layouts, and format assertions that avoid machine-specific locale defaults.
[!WARNING] Translating visible strings does not make a feature localized if dates, plural rules, layout, search, validation, or screen-reader labels still assume English.
Output
Report the audited surfaces and locales, blockers by user journey, hard-coded and structurally unsafe messages, formatting and Unicode defects, layout and RTL findings, fallback gaps, test recommendations, and evidence locations. Separate product copy questions from technical defects.