Ilia Goldfarb

Cultural interface design: global colors study

This paper discusses the design of culturally appropriate web user interfaces in the age of globalization A research study that focuses on identification and rating of visual web interface design elements that act as “cultural markers” is presented Within this study, a web crawling technology collected data on verifiable, culture specific, web page design elements In particular, data was collected on color usage for fifteen countries, based on the large number of country-specific websites We found that there is a palette of certain colors that is predominantly used for website design in all countries studied This palette was identified as an “international” color palette to distinguish it from country-specific color preferences, also found in our study Based on these findings, international and country-specific color palettes, when incorporated in to a Web design tool, will allow designers to develop localized and international interface designs for global social networking and business applications.

M-learning: Overcoming the Usability Challenges of Mobile Devices

This paper discusses the advantages and challenges of using speech recognition technology, on mobile devices, in order to improve usability of mobile learning applications in the field. Multimodal and voice technology that enables speech-based information retrieval and input, using mobile phones or handheld computing devices is explained. Use of multimodal technology helps to overcome the limitations imposed by the small screen of mobile devices and their cumbersome data input capabilities. This technology could be especially valuable in engineering and science education. During field trips, students involved in field monitoring, testing, or other activities using instruments or testing equipment, often need to enter and request information on mobile devices hands-free and eyes-free. The author describes a mobile prototype application of voice and multimodal technology, and discusses mobile usage scenarios that incorporate multimodal data communication during field trips.

Cross-cultural Internet based resource for teaching democracy

The Spirit of Democracy Project was initiated in 2000 by the Citizenship Education Group at UNB, Canada, in partnership with the Russian Association for Civic Education. The goal of this project is to help Russian educators to develop a new dynamic approach to citizenship education in public schools. The focus of the Project is the development of online curriculum resources for use by teachers in Russia and Canada. The Canadian and Russian project teams are developing materials for similar topics based on local content. Researchers create learning opportunities using situations and springboards. The situations present democratic issues and concepts, for example the value of loyalty, or the meaning of privacy. An important role in the Project is assigned to visual materials and creative use of hypermedia. The project site brought together a community of practice in cyberspace-a community of social studies researchers and teachers from Russia and Canada.