What LQA is and why a translation without it does not count

LQA (linguistic quality assurance) is the check of a localized product where the user will see it: in the interface, emails and pushes on real devices. Translation is responsible for the text, LQA for how that text lives inside the product.

A short definition

LQA is a testing stage in which a native speaker goes through the product in the target language and records everything that gets in the user's way: from translation errors to strings that did not fit into a button. The result is a report with defects, screenshots and proposed fixes, not a corrected spreadsheet.

The key difference from translation editing: an editor sees strings in a spreadsheet or a CAT tool, out of context. An LQA tester sees them on the screen, with their real length, neighbouring elements and data. Half of localization defects exist only in the second case.

What LQA looks for

• Clipped and overflowing strings: text did not fit into a button, tab or notification and was cut or broke the layout.
• Context errors: a word translated correctly but wrong for the place — "Save" rendered as "rescue" instead of "store".
• Number and date forms: "1 items", a date in a foreign order, a currency without a space or with the wrong symbol.
• Untranslated remnants: strings in the source language, hard-coded texts, images with text.
• Mixed register and tone: formal and informal address side by side, different names for the same button in different places.
• Fonts and characters: an alphabet unsupported by the font, apostrophes and diacritics shown as boxes.
• Cultural and legal mismatches: examples, currencies, mandatory disclaimers from another market.

How the process works

1. Preparation: a glossary of product terms, access to a build in the target language, a list of screens and flows to cover.
2. A pass on real devices: the narrowest screen and the longest language first.
3. Logging defects in the tracker: screenshot, screen, source and target string, proposed fix, severity.
4. Fixing and re-checking the corrected strings in the interface, not only in the file.

When LQA matters most

Before entering a market with a different alphabet — Armenian, Georgian, Arabic — where fonts break. When translating into languages longer than the source: Kazakh, Uzbek and German take noticeably more space than English and Russian. For financial and iGaming products, where an error in an amount or a mandatory disclaimer is not cosmetic but a regulator's claim. And after machine translation: it produces fluent text with confident errors that nobody notices without a check in context.

How long it takes

For a mid-sized mobile app a full pass in one language takes one to three tester days, re-checking the fixes another day. LQA is cheapest when built into the release cycle: new strings are checked as they appear, not all at once before launch.