Name: Web Norms of the World - Kat Kitay - JSConf US 2019
Uploaded: 2020-03-29T16:35:08.000Z
Duration: 31 min
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

I've been working in Tech for a couple years now as an engineer, but previously as a product manager.

But, like a lot of people, in my degree isn't in computer science.

It's an anthropology, which is the study of human societies and evolution.

And I really like thinking about systems of people.

And now I also really like thinking about systems and programs.

Um, and I think that I really enjoy that.

A lot of the talks today have are about, like, user empathy and bringing that into our technical process.

And I think understanding people is the key to building a successful products and also to architect ing them the right way.

Eso this talk is about the web norms of the world, and it's It's based on the premise that websites and technology are different around the world.

If you've traveled to another continent on vacation, you may have experienced this.

When you try to buy something, look up, then go to a museum or get train tickets on.

If you're a multinational person, this is definitely no surprise to you.

I'm so I just wanted to hop in and give it a couple examples of how websites might look and feel different in different places.

So this is Rocket 10 which is the top Japanese e commerce site.

Um, it's it's obviously a website, but there are some differences versus Japanese.

Um, there's a lot of navigation options at the top.

There aren't many large drop down menus on.

Pair of these navigation items and the product images all have a text baked into them.

And if we compare that to a site like Amazon in the U.

The product categories are hidden under one big hamburger menu.

The Texas generally larger, more spread out.

Train travel is really popular in Europe.

It's super normal to jump on a train to go for a quick vacation.

They offer hotel deals, and I've noticed that European transit sites have adopted this like really friendly candy color bubble style in their Web design.

And I think it reflects the like, fun, popular consumer nature of train travel.

So let's compare it to Amtrak in the US It's definitely more serious in style.

There are no destinations on their home page.

I think maybe it's a little more consumer.

So I started to wonder why these websites were different.

And I keep coming back to my educational background studying culture.

I always thought that they were clear right and wrong ways to make a website.

But when you put it within an anthropological lens, there isn't right.

It's it's all within the context of each culture.

Um, and I think the question is analogous with asking, Why are people around the world different?

It's, uh, which scientists have been trying to answer for hundreds of years, so I will try to do it in 30 minutes.

I've been told to drink water, so I think that the answer is that technology is a mode of cultural expression, just like language or dancing music.

Food architecture includes people's customs or lifestyles, how they orient themselves to the world.

I think even our technical decisions, the ones we make every day from the programming languages, the frameworks Uh huh, Deb service is to the design and colors.

We choose our all driven by a combination of social factors that are unique to each other's cultures.

Why can't people just figure it out for themselves, Right?

I can build websites and products for people in the U.

The first is that computer and Internet technology is totally not really globalised.

It's globalized, better and faster than any other technology.

And we all rely on the same foundational elements for building software like operating systems, programming languages, open source projects, you'll find react developers in every corner of the world, and global software corporations have already become really huge and multinational.

Ins on Web service is people across the world use iPhones, Developed Apple in California.

Many people I've android phones that are built in China and Japan and Korea.

Um, and the world is coming more in line.

The digital divide refers to the gap between people who have access to the Internet and those who don't is shrinking.

So in 1990 the Internet was not very popular, but over the last couple of decades, it's grown tremendously.

Now there are 3.5 1,000,000,000 people with Internet access, and that's only that's actually slightly under half of the world's population.

Some researchers claim total Internet adoption between 2030 and 2040 and emerging economies are adopting the Internet at exponential rates.

Like India, I'm even countries like Bangladesh and Ghana, which are small compared India.

Justin population have doubled the number of Internet connected users in the past couple of years, and this is bringing the user is an opportunity to these countries to the Internet.

Credit, more demand for developers and service is locally and globally.

We benefit from having more developers and being connected with each other around the world.

We can share code, can learn from each other.

Innovations that are made in one part of the world can make a big difference in another part of the world.

And I think that well localized software that really meets the needs of people in each of these areas will ultimately win.

So products that don't make meat user's needs like having offline support choosing but making a smart choice between building a desktop or mobile.

We're not translating will, uh, will cause the proctor not connect with local users on because the because Internet companies are uniquely able to target new customers in global markets.

I think all of us, as developers will need to learn how to internationalize properly.

I mean, think about different cultures around the world, and this includes things like open source software, which already totally globally shared.

This is the Twitter chronological timeline example.

Really switch the feed from time ordered to algorithmic.

I think it shows that culture extends to how people want to use technology and how much trust they have in it.

Onda fact that they backtracked, I think, shows that ultimately software will have to bend to human culture and needs no s.

So how can we make more culturally sensitive technology?

I think we can start by understanding, like the different factors that developers can consider when building software.

The 1st 1 is language, so languages the core thing we do every day.

It affects whether you can read the technical docks for a new language or framework, you want to try the second our cultural attitudes, which are How much do people trust the Internet?

Are they willing to put their credit cards in to buy something online?

Do they have established customs already?

Like lots of rules and order, what other lifestyles like and how they integrated the Internet and technology into it?

The next one is government policy, so some countries restrict the Internet, others in force, regulations to preserve privacy and other countries don't protect their Internet freedoms.

And us in the final one is in a infrastructure.

So who is on the Internet in the first place?