In China, at least 70% of traffic comes from mobile devices, so the company have less resources to invest in PCs. In addition, mobile devices can obtain more private information about users. We have the world's best product manager who is good at teasing users. I think you can make a video about the various anti-human functions in Chinese mobile software products, such as "shake ads (摇一摇广告)" 、"cut a knife (砍一刀)"、“read full article (阅读全文)", which should be very interesting.😂
I managed website projects in China in the 2000s, when sites like Sina got created (and hasn't changed all that much). The flashy effects, cats, etc were often the result of Chinese clients asking "how can I make my users focus on that thing" and then applying that logic over and over - on a page that was already so cluttered. It was completely counterproductive, but useless to persuade them otherwise. Today's Chinese tend to have more modern, international taste. Agree that they have more tolerance for "good enough" and information density, but not necessarily that it's a preference.
Some news/commentary videos are like that too, lots of stuff, like ads, qr codes, animations, on the screen etc while the studio itself already has ads and product placements. Lots of stuff going on, but it makes it lively. I actually like it, I don't know why.
This is all cool, but I'd simply put it this way "Chinese people are used to older design trends, so digital design and UX haven’t really evolved much to this day. Their culture of graphic design, print media, and how they arrange things in real life still influences their digital design style".
I think this is an excellent analysis of *why* Chinese UX design is the way it is, but not necessarily defending if it's actually "good", which I understand is entirely subjective. The best argument to defend the high density is to compare it to the amount of characters in words and sentences when writing in comparison to other languages. That frees up a lot of space that would be required on, say, the same website translated into Swedish. However, that doesn't actually mean people *need* to fill the unused space with more information. Just because historically that has been the case locally, does not mean it is actually a "good" thing, it just satisfies a subconscious bias based on years of exposure to that style of design. In more western styles of design, or even many Asian styles of physical product design and architecture, the idea of minimalism was actually something that grew over time in popularity, not because it was the default style people were accustomed to or even saw on a daily basis, but due to *conscious* decisions to change and remove visual density. As you mentioned, minimalism is a growing trend in eastern cultures of UX design, whereas an increase in information density is *not* growing in popularity in the west despite a drastic increase in exposure to Chinese apps, websites, services, and media. This leads to me to a hunch that eventually, as younger and digital first people become the dominant population across the world, we'll see "minimalism" become the standard for UX design (with some exceptions of course). I would also recommend looking into Korean web and app design. I've observed, aside from websites and publications designed for the older Korean demographic, most digital Korean services are quite minimal, similar to western styles of UX but perhaps more refined. I think the existence of large tech companies like Samsung that design software for many devices, and the need for them to be competitive on a global scale, has led to the Korean populace growing to understand minimalism in UX and actively choosing those minimal experiences over the more info dense traditional Korean digital experiences. The key here is having the ability to use and try more minimal UX from companies with a lot of experience designing, researching, and testing different variations in UX design to billions of people. Our websites and apps tend to mimic and adopt patterns from the core operating systems we use, so perhaps the rise in global popularity of Chinese tech products and software rooted in minimalism will proliferate to other parts of the online experience.
Interesting, but I think an important aspect you left out is that chinese script is incredibly information-dense, compared to latin script. I think this leads to chinese people being much more used to densely packed/presented information than the typical anglo user is.
Seems to me that is cluttered, but organized, kind like an all in one website, me love, but it would be nice to have either Spanish and or English translations. Another so good video, love your shirt, looks like a bicycling maybe running, shirt, see you on the next one. Great questions, answers, and explanations and looking good too, my compliment…😺🥰✨💎💃
As a Product Designer who worked in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it's a real pleasure to look at these videos you made and finding a channel allowing other designers who may not get the opportunity to work from these countries to understand how culture and history shape local product design practices and trends. It's probably the most important thing to understand for a Product Designer, mixing really well with user research, and I'm sure your videos are eyes-opening for a lot of designers who, sometimes, only work on product for their own country and might not get the ability to get this kind of constraints (which I think are really fun to design and can open your mind to new ideas). For occidental designers, some of these practice can feel foreign, and maybe wrong, but it's mostly because the UX we're used to, and learning from, is shaped from European and US cultures and while we can share some good practices, there's no wrong, only understanding of local practices and habits. Keep up the good work, your videos are always a pleasure to watch and I'm sure they are as well for non-designers! 👏
Interesting historical background info I wasn't aware. Thanks! BTW, you look a lot happier then a few month back and gaining a bit of weight also makes you look healthier!
danmaku would be the ultimate clutter, and yet they provide maximum utility for reading and watching at the same time. They are ugly af but also a beautiful way to visualize information.
You are possibly romanticising chinese design. There is little to no criticism of "chinese design" in this video. "Western design" used to be chaotic, information overload, pop ups, animations, unintuitive and untested, egotistical etc - but the philosophy matured over time, and put users at the centre and tested assumptions of design in a more scientific way of having users perform tasks and seeing the flaws of the design. Possibly "Chinese design" is just immature, and will mature down the same path.
You're making it sound like design is a linear process, rather than the intersection of trends, the tastes, and the needs of a specific group of people. Edit: You also said this creator is "romanticising chinese design," but 6:55 clearly shows that doing something non-standard, even if that is just contextually non-standard to the current Chinese consumer, affects usability. The creator does not seem to be celebrating these designs as something that should be universal, but that these designs serve their demographics. There are Chinese researchers that work in, and study, Chinese UI/UX, so to make it sound like they just don't take a "scientific approach" is also incorrect. These large companies know what statistics are, and how to collect user data and test how users interact with their website.
@@snowman4933 It's not that these designs "work" for the Chinese people, it is that this is what they have always been provided and are accustomed to. Like the OP said, western design was in this exact place 20+ years ago and it was not considered bad or immature at the time, it just naturally evolved to become more minimalistic as operating systems on both web and mobile matured in the west. So yes, I do think "immature" is an accurate way to describe this, because once again, comfort and perceived usability from surveys to locals who only know this style of design does not actually make it good. You can say overly dense western sites from 2006 were also "more usable", but no western person would pick the 2006 website over the 2025 version. I do think Chinese UX design will continue to evolve to become much more minimalistic like western (and Korean) UX, but still hold some distinctly Chinese characteristics.
You think the almost empty, everything-is-hidden-behind-hamburger-menus sites are “mature”? A cluttered screen can still be navigated via Ctrl+F, a hidden one can’t.
很神奇的是，欧洲大部分餐厅的菜单，像字典一样，没有图片，而且堆满非常密集的文字，intense中的intense，每次都看得头晕
Duuuuude I’ve always wondered what the fuzzy bleepy dial-up sounds meant, that’s the first time I’ve seen something that made them make sense
In China, at least 70% of traffic comes from mobile devices, so the company have less resources to invest in PCs. In addition, mobile devices can obtain more private information about users.
We have the world's best product manager who is good at teasing users. I think you can make a video about the various anti-human functions in Chinese mobile software products, such as "shake ads (摇一摇广告)" 、"cut a knife (砍一刀)"、“read full article (阅读全文)", which should be very interesting.😂
So chinese writing dont have capitalization and italics, that's interesting. I've learned something today.
I managed website projects in China in the 2000s, when sites like Sina got created (and hasn't changed all that much). The flashy effects, cats, etc were often the result of Chinese clients asking "how can I make my users focus on that thing" and then applying that logic over and over - on a page that was already so cluttered. It was completely counterproductive, but useless to persuade them otherwise.
Today's Chinese tend to have more modern, international taste. Agree that they have more tolerance for "good enough" and information density, but not necessarily that it's a preference.
Some news/commentary videos are like that too, lots of stuff, like ads, qr codes, animations, on the screen etc while the studio itself already has ads and product placements. Lots of stuff going on, but it makes it lively. I actually like it, I don't know why.
Your vids are really good. Lot of gems here. Context with the internet cost and having no italics, bold, etc. 🔥
I'm obsessed with these videos I swear thank you for the content :)
Love the videos!
This is all cool, but I'd simply put it this way
"Chinese people are used to older design trends, so digital design and UX haven’t really evolved much to this day. Their culture of graphic design, print media, and how they arrange things in real life still influences their digital design style".
Love the modem handshake sequence! Not sure if that's nostalgia or PTSD. 😂
I have never heard before about that. Thank you very much for explanation!
I think this is an excellent analysis of *why* Chinese UX design is the way it is, but not necessarily defending if it's actually "good", which I understand is entirely subjective. The best argument to defend the high density is to compare it to the amount of characters in words and sentences when writing in comparison to other languages. That frees up a lot of space that would be required on, say, the same website translated into Swedish. However, that doesn't actually mean people *need* to fill the unused space with more information. Just because historically that has been the case locally, does not mean it is actually a "good" thing, it just satisfies a subconscious bias based on years of exposure to that style of design.
In more western styles of design, or even many Asian styles of physical product design and architecture, the idea of minimalism was actually something that grew over time in popularity, not because it was the default style people were accustomed to or even saw on a daily basis, but due to *conscious* decisions to change and remove visual density. As you mentioned, minimalism is a growing trend in eastern cultures of UX design, whereas an increase in information density is *not* growing in popularity in the west despite a drastic increase in exposure to Chinese apps, websites, services, and media. This leads to me to a hunch that eventually, as younger and digital first people become the dominant population across the world, we'll see "minimalism" become the standard for UX design (with some exceptions of course).
I would also recommend looking into Korean web and app design. I've observed, aside from websites and publications designed for the older Korean demographic, most digital Korean services are quite minimal, similar to western styles of UX but perhaps more refined. I think the existence of large tech companies like Samsung that design software for many devices, and the need for them to be competitive on a global scale, has led to the Korean populace growing to understand minimalism in UX and actively choosing those minimal experiences over the more info dense traditional Korean digital experiences. The key here is having the ability to use and try more minimal UX from companies with a lot of experience designing, researching, and testing different variations in UX design to billions of people. Our websites and apps tend to mimic and adopt patterns from the core operating systems we use, so perhaps the rise in global popularity of Chinese tech products and software rooted in minimalism will proliferate to other parts of the online experience.
I love clutter and information overload, becasue it creates impression that there are lots of going on in the world
Interesting, but I think an important aspect you left out is that chinese script is incredibly information-dense, compared to latin script. I think this leads to chinese people being much more used to densely packed/presented information than the typical anglo user is.
I love your videos! Thanks ...
Amazing video! Thank you
Seems to me that is cluttered, but organized, kind like an all in one website, me love, but it would be nice to have either Spanish and or English translations. Another so good video, love your shirt, looks like a bicycling maybe running, shirt, see you on the next one. Great questions, answers, and explanations and looking good too, my compliment…😺🥰✨💎💃
6:08 why are they still using Internet Explorer 9.0? Didn't explorer die off at version 11.0.1000? I am confused...
If I know correctly, explorer 9 received security patches for the server version not the general user
I’m watching this video while waiting for my flight at Beijing airport, great video as usual!
Really waiting for a video about East European web design! 😊
Great video. Keep it up ! Recently, I have watched your Nothing phone video also, which is also quite good.😇
Wow and interesting how this web design reminds me of the early 2000's when Geocities, Angelfire and Tripod were here.
That T shirt is really cool ❤
Cutest youtuber in my subscription list😏🥰
I remember watching this video of yours a while back, it is very good. Why the re-upload?
Wasn't it about app design, the one linked in the video description? It does ring a bell, indeed.
Another great video, PY.
As a Product Designer who worked in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it's a real pleasure to look at these videos you made and finding a channel allowing other designers who may not get the opportunity to work from these countries to understand how culture and history shape local product design practices and trends.
It's probably the most important thing to understand for a Product Designer, mixing really well with user research, and I'm sure your videos are eyes-opening for a lot of designers who, sometimes, only work on product for their own country and might not get the ability to get this kind of constraints (which I think are really fun to design and can open your mind to new ideas).
For occidental designers, some of these practice can feel foreign, and maybe wrong, but it's mostly because the UX we're used to, and learning from, is shaped from European and US cultures and while we can share some good practices, there's no wrong, only understanding of local practices and habits.
Keep up the good work, your videos are always a pleasure to watch and I'm sure they are as well for non-designers! 👏
Interesting historical background info I wasn't aware. Thanks!
BTW, you look a lot happier then a few month back and gaining a bit of weight also makes you look healthier!
danmaku would be the ultimate clutter, and yet they provide maximum utility for reading and watching at the same time. They are ugly af but also a beautiful way to visualize information.
Waiting for your review to Arabic Websites
Okay! Now explain what's the design principle that led me to have crush on you 👉👈
@underscore stole your other video without citing
La pour balance la team
congrats on your nothing colab!
You are possibly romanticising chinese design. There is little to no criticism of "chinese design" in this video. "Western design" used to be chaotic, information overload, pop ups, animations, unintuitive and untested, egotistical etc - but the philosophy matured over time, and put users at the centre and tested assumptions of design in a more scientific way of having users perform tasks and seeing the flaws of the design. Possibly "Chinese design" is just immature, and will mature down the same path.
No
You're making it sound like design is a linear process, rather than the intersection of trends, the tastes, and the needs of a specific group of people.
Edit: You also said this creator is "romanticising chinese design," but 6:55 clearly shows that doing something non-standard, even if that is just contextually non-standard to the current Chinese consumer, affects usability. The creator does not seem to be celebrating these designs as something that should be universal, but that these designs serve their demographics. There are Chinese researchers that work in, and study, Chinese UI/UX, so to make it sound like they just don't take a "scientific approach" is also incorrect. These large companies know what statistics are, and how to collect user data and test how users interact with their website.
Because this video is abt why this design works for the Chinese population. It's not a criticism, it's a "sharing-facts" video.
@@snowman4933 It's not that these designs "work" for the Chinese people, it is that this is what they have always been provided and are accustomed to. Like the OP said, western design was in this exact place 20+ years ago and it was not considered bad or immature at the time, it just naturally evolved to become more minimalistic as operating systems on both web and mobile matured in the west. So yes, I do think "immature" is an accurate way to describe this, because once again, comfort and perceived usability from surveys to locals who only know this style of design does not actually make it good. You can say overly dense western sites from 2006 were also "more usable", but no western person would pick the 2006 website over the 2025 version. I do think Chinese UX design will continue to evolve to become much more minimalistic like western (and Korean) UX, but still hold some distinctly Chinese characteristics.
You think the almost empty, everything-is-hidden-behind-hamburger-menus sites are “mature”? A cluttered screen can still be navigated via Ctrl+F, a hidden one can’t.
Good inside🎉🎉
That’s a bjj brand respect ❤
yu know the deets
I cant even listen to what you are saying .. your face is too distracting .. You are very attractive.
«Latin languages like English»???? Sorry???
English is a Germanic language.
🙂