- cross-posted to:
- technology@hexbear.net
19
- cross-posted to:
- technology@hexbear.net
Chinese web design is often a cluttered mess. However, between economic, cultural, and typographic reasons, this style is here to stay. Previously, we’ve learned why Chinese apps are weirdly cluttered. Well, websites bring this to another level. With 1.4 billion people in China, why do some of the most widely used websites still adopt this 2000s styled design? Wouldn't it lag up the PC? Yes, but that's if people use PCs…
In this video, I cover the history, psychology, and culture of Chinese web design. I discuss the impact of internet speed limitation, mobile leapfrogging, language & typography, and how we as software/website designers, developers, and builders can create things that fit local users. Spoiler: clutter does not mean bad UX.
Sources (videos)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCe6xnxdN1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KDdU0DCbJA
Source (articles)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1058070/china-sina-weibo-dau/#:~:text=As%20of%20the%20first%20quarter,582%20million%20monthly%20active%20users
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/china-website-complexity/
https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2023/09/why-are-chinese-websites-stuck-in-2003/
https://econsultancy.com/why-do-chinese-websites-look-so-busy/
https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-au/insights/blog/why-do-chinese-websites-and-apps-look-so-busy
https://style.mla.org/italics-titles-not-latin-alphabet/#:~:text=No.,instead%20of%20to%20the%20right.
You're busy, I gotchu
0:00 - So many questions
0:57 - Why is this an economic decision?
2:46 - How did mobile leapfrogging impact this?
4:15 - How does Chinese culture influence this?
5:12 - What does the science say?
5:32 - Why is clutter sometimes kinda nice?
6:14 - How does language & typography impact this?
7:19 - What can we learn?
7:40 - a message to web/software builders
On certain communities and on Hexbear, which I frequently repost to and from, it’s generally suggested and sometimes expected to post links using privacy/archival frontends, especially if the source is reactionary. I try to follow those rules. And while the bot is useful, I find it a bit annoying to see I received a comment and it ends up being the bot, boo. Plus lemmy now seems to show video content from YouTube if it uses an invidious link.
I know sometimes the video links do not work, but I prefer giving invidious links anyway as it’s easy to forget to finagle the link before just immediately clicking on it and accidentally opening a site like YouTube. I like to give users a buffer before deciding how to approach the link if it doesn’t work. Invidious has a link available to watch directly on YouTube, so I figured people can still ultimately watch the video if nothing else works.
Huh, I wasn’t aware of that.