Path recognized that its users might speak more than one language and want to carry those daily multilingual interactions over into their app-based interactions. So the company add seven new languages to the social app.

The move wasn’t an overnight, snap decision. A lot of work, including crowd-based localization testing, went into the major addition. Here’s why so much work was needed to not only translate, but localize Path (from TechCrunch):

As American-born companies extend their networks to reach an increasingly mobile audience abroad, localizing product experience is crucial. International users don’t want to feel that they’re being pandered to, and they’re not eager to jump on board if the experience feels like it’s just a slapdash port aimed at boosting download stats.

Path remains a small team based out of San Francisco, so it turned to its users to help translate and localize the app’s experience for its international users. Though it admits that it’s still very much a work in progress, the goal is an important one. …

After raising over $30 million in funding in April, it seems that Path has begun aggressively focusing on international scale and expanding localized support for its 3 million-plus users.

Read the full article at TechCrunch >>>

That first paragraph is key to localization testing. Straight translating an app won’t make it international-user friendly, you need make sure it fits culturally and that all the nitty-gritty details make sense to the new users in their language and culture. Path, with its 16 supported languages, seems to have a pretty good sense of that.