Unlike Westerners, Chinese become very uncomfortable when people get right to the point. It’s all about input from the site to the brain, and not nearly as much about interaction, reaction or understanding.Īnother aspect of Chinese culture that became frustratingly obvious over time is that they are extremely indirect. The premise of my theory is that when Chinese are accessing a website, they are in data acquisition mode. They acquire data first they indulge in it later. As Westerners, we desire and expect enlightenment, an “ah-hah” moment, an understanding, even entertainment (whether that is the intent of the website or not). I think this insight into how most Chinese learn might be a key component to how most Chinese read and interact with websites as well. Quite different from our views on the University experience here in the West, huh? They figured they had the rest of their life to spend thinking about and grasping the information they were learning in school and now wasn’t the time to actually analyze it. During that time I noticed that the general rule of thumb for Chinese students was to memorize information and really not be bothered with actually understanding it. I spent most of my time in China at the University where I taught. Rather, it is simply taking its own course, being guided primarily by Eastern culture and only mildly influenced by the West with basic IA concepts. Of course, artistic evolution is rooted in cultural upbringing, but my argument is that Chinese web design preference, while evolving and advancing, is not playing catch-up to Western web design. Perhaps that is where China is currently positioned along the fabric of design evolution.Īnother possibility, however (and my personal theory), is that nurture has trumped nature and Chinese web design preferences are being formed from upbringing and cultural influence rather than prolonged exposure and natural artistic evolution. As a culture, our preferences have evolved. An example of this could be that I personally wouldn’t hang a Renaissance style painting in my house today though I most certainly would have during that era. I suppose there is merit in the truth that design and artistic preference evolve over time and with prolonged exposure. Of course, being the pompous Westerner that I am, my initial reaction was “Oh, they are a developing nation and simply haven’t caught up to us yet.” Well, that could be the case. I honestly felt like I was back to 1995 all over again. Moreover, it’s common for Chinese sites to have multiple, simultaneous animations, popups, overlays, sliders, etc… they regularly practice many of the fundamentally understood bad design principles that Western designers strive to avoid at all costs. How could this be acceptable? How are the Chinese able to consume all of this data, filter it, and decide what they want and don’t? Why do they even tolerate the fact that this is standard practice? text) with either a misuse of graphics or the complete omission of graphics altogether. With the exception of (who blatantly copied their design from Google) and (who clearly copied their design from Facebook), the common theme among most Chinese sites seemed to be ludicrous amounts of characters (e.g. Either way, the answers I received back from the Chinese were sites like the following: So the caveat here is that I may have received different feedback had I asked Chinese web designers. I’m guessing if I asked this question to the common web surfer in the West I’d get sites that weren’t well designed (cough-facebook-cough-amazon-cough). Out of curiosity, I began to ask around and put together a list of websites that Chinese natives frequented and thought were well designed / useful. I noticed that I simply could not find a Chinese website that was visually appealing to me. But what really began to emerge were subtle differences like sense of humor, interests and artistic preference. Sure there were obvious differences like language, physical appearance, governmental philosophy, etc. Upon my arrival in China in the summer of 2005, it wasn’t long before I began to notice some of the intricacies of the cultural differences between the Chinese and the West. Japan, for instance, has been heavily influenced by the West (and vise versa), so many of our affinities, in design and otherwise, overlap. I recognize that my generalizations are merely that, generalizations. Additionally, I will interchange the terms “Chinese” and “Eastern”. I have no formal education or training on the subject of Eastern or Western cultures, sociology or cross-cultural communications whatsoever. Opinions formed by observations and interactions with the Chinese culture over a brief period of about two years during my time living in the Henan province in Central China. My opinions on the following topic are merely that, opinions.
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