Dear Web Designers and Usability Guys,
More and more sites are available in multiple languages these days. And some even provide different information based on the location of the user, e.g. relevant news, local weather, or price information.
For the majority of Internet users, location implies language. However, it is not always the case! If you are only interested in language, ask the user which one does he or she prefer. If you are interested in location - ask for location. It is cool if you are able to detect my location automatically, but it drives me mad if I can't change it manually if needed. Suppose I want to look up the news for a different place? Or I'm planning to buy this device when I'm back home? Why can't I look up the bloody price I'll get there?
And remember: location doesn't imply language! For example, I currently stay in Germany, but I don't really speak the language, and it's really annoying when I cannot change it. A classic example is Amazon: when I'm in Germany, I'd like to search amazon.de and see the products they have here and the local prices in Euros. I can do that, but only in German. I cannot switch to English without switching to GB or USA.
воскресенье, 16 мая 2010 г.
Cognitive Science
Cognitive Science (CogS) is an extremely fascinating and rapidly developing area of human knowledge. CogS is to answer questions about the thing people are interested in most of all - about themselves. The questions are: how do we perceive, process and transmit information? And how do we learn?
It may be considered a specific part of psychology. A rather independent part, though. One special aspect is it's close relation to computer science and machine learning. Not just to understand, but also to imitate the processes similar to human thinking in computer algorithms - there are still many things computers cannot do, while for humans they are so obvoius we don't even think of them. On the other hand, if we construct an algorithm that performs close to human on certain tasks, it can yield a good model for what actually happens.
I was lucky to participate in MLSS 2010 last week, where I got an introduction to the field via several amazing talks by Josh Tenenbaum, Tom Griffiths, Chris Watkins and others.
Personally, I believe that knowing how the brain works, we could not only construct better computer systems, but also improve the way we learn and teach.
It may be considered a specific part of psychology. A rather independent part, though. One special aspect is it's close relation to computer science and machine learning. Not just to understand, but also to imitate the processes similar to human thinking in computer algorithms - there are still many things computers cannot do, while for humans they are so obvoius we don't even think of them. On the other hand, if we construct an algorithm that performs close to human on certain tasks, it can yield a good model for what actually happens.
I was lucky to participate in MLSS 2010 last week, where I got an introduction to the field via several amazing talks by Josh Tenenbaum, Tom Griffiths, Chris Watkins and others.
Personally, I believe that knowing how the brain works, we could not only construct better computer systems, but also improve the way we learn and teach.
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