Anyone who has done UX work in Asia knows that Asian websites typically feature more visually complex designs, with a greater density of information and interactive elements, than those from America and Europe. Observers have offered a number of explanations for this difference, including a greater cultural need for security and information, higher Internet bandwidth, a less mature UX ecosystem, and more complex urban environments.
Drawing on recent research in experimental psychology, we argue that a tendency in Asian cultures towards more contextually rich and relational processing in comparison to American and European cultures can explain many of these differences. Next, we examine emerging findings that suggest similar cognitive tendencies exist based on religion, region, class, political orientation. We conclude with a summary of best practices for designing user experiences across cultural contexts, emphasizing the importance of local knowledge and user research in the increasingly diverse world of UX.
5. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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But Not Everywhere Keeps It
Simple
http://www.qq.com/ http://www.rakuten.co.jp/ http://www.daum.net/
China
News
South Korea
Portal
Japan
E-Commerce
list of characteristics, from randomwire
Dense tightly packed text
Tiny low-quality images
More columns than you can count
Bright clashing colors and flashing banners
Also, point out:
many links
highly graphical text
6. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Why Are Asian and Western
Websites So Different?
http://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-different/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/what-silicon-valley-can-learn-from-seoul.html
http://uxmastery.com/ux-design-asia-maturing/
9. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Maturity
The Argument
→Asian Sites Are
Immature ❌ Asian Technology
Yahoo, U.S., 1999
But…
PPOMPPU, South Korea, 2016
http://www.ppomppu.co.kr/Via WayBack Machine
also mention gap here
10. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
Conference Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/survey www.uxpa2016.org
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Bandwidth
The Asian
Internet Is Faster
The Asian
Internet Is Slower
Akamai
The Trend Is in the
Wrong Direction
Asia
U.S.
Asia
Asia
Asia
The Argument But…
→ ❌
❌Asia
11. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Language
Writing Density
Partially
Logographic
Systems, Alphabets,
& Abugidas
Capitalization
and Italicization
More Text, Not
Less
❌ Limited on Western
Sites
I do not speak Chinese
http://www.qq.com/ (China)
→ ❌
❌
→
ฉันไม่พูดภาษาไทย
나는 한국어를 못하는
I do not speak Korean
I do not speak Thai
The Argument But…
http://www.jd.com/ (China)https://www.amazon.com/ (U.S.)
First line of translated text is Simplified Chinese
12. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Assurance
Hesitant to
Accept Claims
Non-Informational
Content
❌
Information per
Page
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/arlqn/1200008000af0072/ (Japan)
http://www.goo.ne.jp/ (Japanese news site)
→ ❌
The Argument But…
http://www.jd.com/ (China)Wang et al., 2012
13. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Landscape
Complexity of
Urban Landscape
Correlation
≠
Causation
Tokyo
Along the River During the Qingming Festival
Hong KongSeoul
Huang & Park, 2013
Llyn Peris and Dolbadarn Castle
Masuda et al., 2008
Japan Los Angeles
→ ❌
The Argument But…
Along the River During the Qingming Festival. The painting is considered to be the most renowned work among all Chinese paintings, and it has been called "China's
Mona Lisa.” Original is from ~1100 BCE. This remake is from 1736-1737.
Llyn Peris and Dolbadarn Castle. ca. 1762. Richard Wilson. National Museum of Wales. was described in the Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales as the "most
distinguished painter Wales has ever produced and the first to appreciate the aesthetic possibilities of his country”. he was the first major British painter to concentrate
on landscape.
15. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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“The Chinese...pay attention to a
wide range of events; they search
for relationships between things;
and they think you can’t understand
the part without understanding the
whole. Westerners live in a simpler,
more deterministic world; they focus
on salient objects or people instead
of the larger picture….”
Richard Nisbett, PhD
“You know, the
difference between
you and me is that I
think the world is a
circle, and you think
it’s a line.”
22. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Context
http://www.appledaily.com.tw/ (Taiwanese news site)
“A clear implication of these findings for web site design is that Asian users see the contextual elements as being useful pieces of information that they can use to
interpret he meaning of a more central message or interactive element. By contrast, the same contextual information is likely to seem superfluous or even distracting
peripheral to the Western user.”
26. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Is This Genetic?
Senzaki et al., 2014
❌ Move Countries
❌ Asian American
❌ Child Development
❌ Induction
Hong & Morris, 2000
Peng & Knowles, 2003
“Recall an experience you had that
made your identity as
an American [Asian] apparent to you.”
Grade1
Canada
Grade4
Japan
28. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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So What Does This Mean for
Me?
✓
✓
Guidelines Are Just Guidelines
Do the Research
✓ Respect Your Users
✓ Build Flexible Templates https://tw.yahoo.com/ (Taiwan) https://us.yahoo.com/ (USA)
34. Session Survey: http://www.uxpa2016.org/sessionsurvey/14
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Maturity
For Against
✓ ❌
✓
Language Barriers
Inherently
Conservative
✓Internet Restrictions
The Gap Is Too Big
❌ And Why Just the Web?