What is the interactive learning ability of the European and American users?

Have you noticed any difference in this area? Interactive designers in the collation of interactive knowledge, may forget to consider the domestic user's interactive learning ability, this subtle difference let @edc Yu Yuanqing students caught, today he will be in different countries when designers accumulated user experience to share out, directly to learn from it!

Detailed description of the problem:

One of the more common arguments about why domestic applications tend to replicate IOS designs on Android apps is that domestic "ordinary users" are mostly poor learners, and difficult to understand the more complex operations of sliding, sideslip, and so on in Android design. In foreign countries, Twitter and other apps for ordinary users use Android design. The Lord has not been out of the country, sincerely ask you, foreign ordinary users in the interactive learning ability is far higher than domestic users?

My answer is as follows:

First of all, in the context of the problem, I think there is no such thing as "learning ability". After all, not the spaceship, product design, such as the design of an app, is far from the use of the word "learning ability."

I think we can divide the learning ability here into two dimensions: the cost of learning, the willingness to learn.

Learning costs are generally not good in product design. A user-oriented product, a good design should try to avoid learning costs. This argument has been validated in many product design success stories. For example, Apple, Google many products appear in the meaningful dynamic design, is to give users clues, so that users can understand the use of, this is a way to reduce the cost of learning.

Even if it was designed for the pilots to operate the spacecraft interface (sorry just to see the interstellar crossing ...), the interface no matter how complicated, I believe that the designer is also to follow the learning costs lower the better this logic.

The willingness to learn is another dimension. Why do users learn? because they want to use it, so they try to learn to learn to master these actions. The willingness to learn comes from a number of factors: for example, the external factors, the user to buy a ticket to Beijing, just the airline booking site is very complex, users only silently click on each area to learn to try to buy tickets successfully; for example, intrinsic factors, most social products, users for a variety of purposes (to meet new friends, Keep in touch with old friends, share with your family, etc., to learn to use these social products, to learn and to understand the use strategies that should be taken in these social products.

Therefore, it is a valuable process to design a product and seriously consider the cost of learning and willingness to learn.

After discussing the learning ability, now back to the question, perhaps the questioner may want to ask is:

Are European and American users more likely to understand new ways of interacting?

No, I don't think so.

Of course, I am not a user research expert, I am an interactive designer who has done user research work in the working environment. So here I am subjectively empirically and not quite sure to answer this question, and I don't think the European and American users are more likely to understand the new way of interacting.

My answer is based on some of my user research experience.

Face-to-face user testing, or the experience of directly observing user testing in the observation room:

User testing of the internal Information System Web site for ordinary users, school teachers, students, and school staff in the Michigan country.

User testing of document management processes for government workers in Washington, D.C.

In New York, the first-tier city graduates, white-collar workers, business people, employees of the company to carry out mobile phone operating system, mobile app user testing.

Mobile chat software, mobile map user testing for West Coast mass users in Seattle, USA.

A user test of mobile search in Silicon Valley for Silicon Valley user groups in the US.

In Los Angeles, Los Angeles large area user groups for mobile local business software, mobile search, mobile buy mobile products, such as user testing.

In Shenzhen for Tencent's user groups for Web products, game platform products user testing.

In Germany, for the local young, middle-aged, elderly users of the home TV video products user testing.

Most of my other user research experiences are remote, collected through a line of user feedback, a line of business feedback, and the user groups from which these products are targeted are:

China, Germany, USA, UK, France, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Philippines, Colombia, Nigeria, Egypt, Greece, Spain, Kenya, UAE, Vietnam, Serbia, Russia, Indonesia, Burma, etc.

Because we have experienced user testing and user research in a number of countries, I would like to think, "is it easier to understand the new ways of interacting with European and American users?" This question writes some experience class's subjective opinion, as far as possible does not put dialectical to go in, only provides the appearance, for everybody reads the reference. ：)

If we look at the ability of European and American users to understand new ways of interacting, I think the average is low. Or the majority of countries in the region users, in the face of new interactive mode, understanding efficiency is low.

In the user tests that I've done, Silicon Valley users have had the best results in new interactive forms, because they are in Silicon Valley, and they are willing to accept new things even if they are not working in an internet company. When Square came out, for example, many Silicon Valley stores immediately began using the ipad to allow customers to pay with square.

But please note that this is just a willingness to learn. They are not necessarily quick to get started. They are also easily lost in the face of new ways of interacting.

Then talk about big cities like Los Angeles (New York User test results are consistent with Los Angeles). Here I have more experience in user testing, because the user community in Los Angeles is more extensive and richer, so we can test a wider range of users: housewives, the General staff, the elderly, students, young people and so on. There is a wide range of groups, and the efficiency of understanding the new features of the product or the new interactive approach is greatly reduced. Sometimes I design and repeatedly identify products that are easy to understand and get a lot of "incomprehensible" and "failed" feedback in the Los Angeles user test, which is very helpful to our product design.

Seattle, Arbor, the smaller the place, the lower the average understanding of new features and new ways of interacting.

Of all the European user groups, I have only been in Germany to take part in user testing, so this is only about the perception of German user testing. German users are very rigorous, I personally think they are a little more logical thinking, although the new interactive way of understanding the ability of the same, but they can quickly ask and answer after probably know how to use the product.

This is an interesting place where American users can easily give up if they encounter an incomprehensible feature or interactive approach. This is called the sex mody ... haha haha.

Finally speaking of Chinese users, is we, ha ha. The Tencent product Group I'm testing is still a little bit younger, so it's only about young people. I personally feel that China's young users of the new interactive way of understanding the ability, learning will, learning cost pressure tolerance, are not lower than the young users in Europe and the United States, even Chinese young users in the "pondering the attempt" this aspect more persistent.

Of course, I have some explanations and arguments I've tried to make, but as I said before, I'll just talk about appearances and answer questions without argument. Because this argument is too big and too much of a matter of opinion, so this does not unfold. ：)

Finally attach a personal opinion, questioner said, Android to move iOS design, is to take care of the domestic average user's "learning ability" This feature, I do not agree. The possible explanations are individual user habits, performance pressures, natural obedience to the industry's unified form, group-use habits, and much more, but are not "learning ability is poor".

As I have said in the beginning, the design of product such as mobile app is far from "learning ability".

Please remember, we designed products, especially for the public products, more than 90% is "small white" users, they are not smart, not learning ability is poor, they are disdain, and have too many choices. So what we should design for them is the simplest and most suitable product.

In addition to the formal user testing, user interviews, in fact, to do personal user research, user interviews is simple. When I first went to Europe on business and had no knowledge of German local users, I booked myself a weekly chat plan with 10 strangers in order to work better and design for German users.

The plan is very successful, and it is very important for me to design output, design negotiation and design delivery in Germany.

You can chat with a German colleague when you have a seminar to get to know the user.

In a banquet with a German client, you can also chat with the customer to understand the user.

Germany won the World Cup in this year's World Cup. I also played with a few of the local German partners and knew the user when I played.

In the Happy parade in Frankfurt, can also meet new friends, understand the user. Good love for these happy Hungarian brothers.