Name: Chinese app design: weird, but it works. Here's why
Uploaded: 2024-08-13T03:28:41.000Z
Duration: 10 min 51 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

They both serve the same purpose, which is to send and receive money.

Also, this doesn't just stop at software design.

Culture affects human behavior and perception.

But I'm wondering, how does cultural psychology impact software and app design?

China has 1.4 billion people, more than a sixth of the world human population.

Which means in China, new internet products amass millions of users in months, maybe even weeks.

The scale is unlike anything that the West has ever seen.

After scouring through research papers, talks from scientists on culture, and software design articles,

Why would Chinese users prefer mobile over desktop apps?

And finally, how might all of this affect us?

This is not to generalize Chinese or Western culture.

This is based on my own research and my experiences traveling to and living in China.

With that said, let's dive into the design psychology of Chinese apps.

Why is this cluttered design actually necessary?

We'll start with the concept of super apps.

A few years ago, near the end of COVID, my dad was at a grocery store in China.

He got his groceries, went up to the cashier, and took out his wallet to get some cash.

He put the cash on the table, and the cashier just looked at him.

This grocery store not only did not take cash, they refused credit cards.

And the only way to pay there was through WeChat Pay.

Turns out, it's not just this grocery store.

The vast majority of businesses and stores in China have adopted the use of WeChat as their main source of payment.

WeChat, in this case, has become a super app.

Sure, WeChat started off as a messaging app just like iMessage, but it has quickly expanded and grown in features, where people can now send money to each other, browse short-form content like TikTok, and message each other, all on WeChat.

This is the same for 支付宝, which is another popular payment application.

Each individual thing on here is a separate feature.

So in China, it's now actually hard to pay with any other method, like cash or credit card.

In other words, if you don't use super apps like WeChat, you're weeded out.

Won't shops just go out of business that way?

Why would people prefer these singular apps?

On your way to the office, a message comes in from your boss.

You go to another app to place an order for pickup.

And your mobile wallet needs to be updated.

Now, coffee, which took four apps to accomplish.

Some of the most used applications in China, such as WeChat, Meituan, and 支付宝, all started off as single-function apps.

But they've expanded to become this all-in-one tool.

In what Americans might think as cluttered, weird design, here, they become a superpower.

To Chinese users, they are very reassuring and have a seamless user experience.

Because you're only using one app, you don't have to worry about closing and opening a bunch of different apps, setting a bunch of different passwords.

And remember that QR code scanning feature?

All of these apps have a QR scanning feature.

And so when businesses and people align to use the same products, everything works seamlessly.

China can do this because of its collectivist culture, which have communities that prioritize the needs of a group rather than any single individual.

Collectivism in China allowed for a wide adoption of several products.

People are willing to learn a behavior that's inconvenient at first on an individual level, but extremely useful for the collective whole.

In this case, the adoption of WeChat Pay everywhere.

Hello, Jack of all trades, master of none.

Doesn't trying to be good at everything makes it so that nothing is good?

Well, not if you consider the taocan experience.

We see this when we're ordering food from a fast food restaurant.

Chinese people want their user experience to be like a McDonald's Happy Meal.

This is the Chinese version of Google Maps, but it's not just a map.

Not only that, you can compare the prices across 10 different apps, all on this one map application.

It feels like your life is just taken care of with this one app, which is exactly what this design goes for.

Cluttered design means more information means more reassurance.

Chinese and Western user interfaces found that both the design and user experience of WeChat may be specifically tailored for a target user group whose thinking and behavioral patterns are holistic, polychronic, meaning multitasking, and high-context.

In a high-context society, we believe good, effective communication is a communication that's more implicit or layered or nuanced.

So with this indirect, more nuanced way of communicating, that makes sense why there's so much detail on all of these designs.

So how does physical space impact this cluttered design?

Show me what your home looks like, and I can tell you what kind of person you are.

Turns out there's a big correlation between what China looks like physically versus what goes on their digital interfaces.

People are used to the space that they live in, so they're accustomed to the experiences that they're familiar with.

And in this case, it's a busy environment.

This clip is from a city walk in Chengdu, China.

We see big, lavish decorations in its architecture and big neon signs wherever there is people.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Chinese app design: weird, but it works. Here's why

individual

bunch

context

mental