Why is China's web design so bad?

I want to start with a statement. The point I write in the headline is just a point of view. Here are my two years of time in central China's Henan province, the view from the observation and exchange of http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/33137.html "> Chinese culture."

I have no formal education or training in eastern and Western culture, sociology, intercultural communication or otherwise. In addition, I will use "China" instead of "Oriental". I admit that my generalizations are just generalizations. Japan, for example, has been deeply influenced by the West (and vice versa), and there are too many similarities in design and other aspects.

cause

Before I arrived in China in the summer of 2005, I was not aware of the large cultural differences between the West and China. Of course there are many obvious differences, such as language, physical appearance, political orientation, and so on. These differences are emerging in terms of humor, interest and aesthetic tendencies.

I noticed that it was almost impossible to find a Chinese website that really attracted me. Out of curiosity, I began to collect lists of websites that Chinese people often use or think design is excellent/useful.

I guess if I ask a common Western netizen, the answer must be that these websites are not well designed (contrasting Facebook,amazon). What I need to explain here is that I got a different response when I asked a Chinese web designer. Anyway, the websites I've collected from Chinese people are as follows:

Baidu (China's Google) Alibaba (China's ebay) QQ (China's aim/google Talk) Renren (China's Facebook), Sina (China's Yahoo)

In addition to Baidu (designed to blatantly copy Google) and Renren (apparently copying Facebook's design), the common design of Chinese websites is a lot of ridiculous elements (such as words), some are flooded with pictures, and some don't have any pictures at all. I am deeply puzzled by this. How can this be accepted? How do Chinese users digest so much content, filter content and decide which ones they want and which are not? Why do they make such designs a potluck?

Moreover, China's Web site also contains a variety of categories, while displaying animations, pop-up windows, window nesting, sidebar, and so on. They are often surrounded by faulty designs that Western designers make every effort to avoid. I really think 1995 years seems to repeat itself in front of me.

my feelings.

Of course, as a conceited Westerner, my first reaction was: "Oh, they are developing countries and can't catch up with us." "Maybe that's the problem. I feel that experience has changed in design and aesthetic orientation over time. For example, I personally would never hang a renaissance painting in my room, but if I were in that era, I would definitely hang. As a kind of culture, our aesthetic has changed. And perhaps that is where China is now in the process of design development.

Another possibility, perhaps (my own theory), is that education trumps the development of nature, and that China's web design aesthetic is shaped by the influence of education and culture, rather than as a natural or artistic evolution. Of course, the evolution of art is based on cultural education, but I think that even if art is evolving, China's web design aesthetic does not catch up with Western web design. In contrast, he was only influenced by his own, and was fundamentally guided by Oriental culture, only slightly influenced by the concept of Western basic IA.

Why did

form such a theory

I spend most of my time in China in the university where I teach. After a while I noticed that the general experience of Chinese students is to remember, not to really understand. They think they use the rest of their lives to understand what they've learned in school, and now it's not the time to analyze and understand. It's quite different from our Western view of the university, isn't it?

I think the way to learn most Chinese is to understand the key to how most Chinese people read and interact with the Web. As a Westerner, we desire and expect enlightenment, some inspiration, some understanding, and even recreation (whether this is the intent of the site). Easterners don't do that. They first capture information and then indulge in it. The premise of my theory is that when the Chinese visit a website, they are in the data acquisition mode. Accessing a Web site is a matter of inputting the content into the brain, unrelated to interaction, reaction, or understanding.

Another element of Chinese culture has become increasingly frustrating over time: they are very indirect. Unlike Westerners, Chinese people will feel very uncomfortable if they go straight to the subject. Chinese chatting is like dancing. To Westerners, this is extremely frustrating and confusing. This is the most acceptable way for the Chinese to communicate. I think this has a lot to do with website interaction design. Concise, straight to the theme, let people do something is not to arouse the resonance of Chinese culture.

Facts

Now, as a mentally visible realist, I have a few generalizations about my feelings and understanding:

This does not mean that now I think the Chinese website design Beautiful. To me, this is still the trite 1995 Western design. This design may have been tolerated at the time, but it is now absolutely bad and should not be repeated. I do not think that today's Chinese website design should or might catch up with the current Western design trends we see. I don't think art preference is the intersection of vision and culture, and every culture goes through the same point. China and the West have their own path of development. We can and should understand our cultural differences, but we should not and cannot (at least not now) agree that this is the best practice of web design.

Cross-cultural web design cannot be said to be impossible, but it is really extremely difficult. Beyond the barrier of language, there are also the aesthetic obstacles can not be crossed. It's not a bad thing, everyone is different, and every culture is different. However, I believe that in cross-cultural communication and communication, something unique in this culture must be preserved. Website design is one of them.

Source: http://space.yeeyan.org/u/203274