The main features of Chinese web design and their origins

^{Compare: a popular news site in the West and in China}



I have repeatedly written on Habré about the specifics of the Chinese Internet, so in the last article we touched upon the purchase of hosting in China , and today I propose to consider the features of Chinese web design and their origins.



I must say that, in my understanding, “web design” is more than beautiful pictures and cool special effects. First of all, this is the correct submission and registration of information. Therefore, in this article I will discuss a lot about the Chinese mentality and differences in the perception of information.

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What is Chinese web design for?

By the nature of my business, foreign companies often turn to me for advice, analysis and other assistance in the field of Chinese Internet. Often it comes to the localization of the site or application, then the question arises of a separate design for the Chinese audience. The question is correct, as a modern approach to design is directly related to conversion, where minor changes in the interface can lead to an increase (or fall) in profits (and other indicators) by tens of percent. (Ask webmasters who worked in adalta: in the early 2000s, they did such advanced things with conversion, to which some e-commerce sites only reached 10 years later.) The same goes for the Chinese Internet: some interfaces and the “western” decisions to the Chinese will simply be incomprehensible and will not work. Therefore, a simple translation of the site from one language to Chinese is not enough. It is necessary to take into account the specifics of Chinese thinking, the habits of the Chinese and the well-established practices of the Chinese Internet in order for the Internet project to be successful in China. Here is one clear example.

About new windows and an example from practice

A friend of mine several years ago was launching an online store for Chinese housewives from second-order cities. Initially, they made a modern Western-style store, clean and bright, jQuery, AJAX and other bells and whistles. But despite aggressive marketing, sales were all bad. We looked at the statistics: people do not go beyond the main page or product page, reluctantly press the “buy” button, the number of registrations is close to zero, while nobody writes a feedback form. We decided to hold an action “tell me about the problems on the site and get a gift or 10 yuan to the account” and it began ... The reviews fell incessantly. The first thing my colleagues did was remove all Ajax from the site, all the links did by default open in a new window, only the cell phone or QQ was left for registration, the BBS was screwed on (forum) and ... after a couple of redesigns, the project started and sales went up .



Many users described the same “problem” like this: I click on the registration or “buy” - the page does not respond (or does not change) . We started to study the case and it turned out that the people simply ignored the beautifully pop-up js-forms, or thought it was an advertisement or layout.



And here is another frequent case: “I want to return to the previous page, press the cross - and I have a desktop or another site in general is shown. On other sites, everything is working fine! " This case (and there were a lot of similar ones) clearly shows the level of Internet literacy of the audience of this project. For the Chinese, during the period of a bad but accessible Internet (when links open in all windows on all sites), the false understanding that the “close the window” button has gained a foothold is something that returns the user to the previous page. This is hard to believe, but ignorance of this “shocking” fact cost the company quite a few lost users.



Moral: thoroughly analyze your potential audience for readiness for your design experiments. The same interfaces can work well on the site for Shanghai hipsters and generally do not work on the site for provincial housewives.

Stereotypes of Chinese web design

Now we will try to collect the most common signs (or stereotypes) of a typical Chinese site:

• Large and overloaded web pages, the length of a sheet. It seems that Chinese webmasters are trying to fit all the site information on one page.
• A huge number of links, the practical absence of ordinary (non-clickable) text.
• A huge amount of advertising, including gif / flash-animation and "flying" on the screen blocks.
• Several chat windows on the page (with technical support): one chat window on the left, three on the right and one right in the middle of the screen.
• Incomprehensible and confusing navigation: a horizontal menu at the top, two vertical ones at the edges, one navigation with drop-down blocks, another one of the 10 columns at the very bottom of the site.
• The page is about everything and about anything specifically: the absence of some specific focus (task) on this page.
• Bright design, diverse color scheme (at least 10 different colors).
• Block with scrolling text. Preferably several such blocks.

Why is Chinese web design so bad?

Feature of Chinese Web Design No. 1: Overloaded pages





^{Home page of the largest Chinese portal Sohu.com (adblock enabled)}



Perhaps everyone will agree with this point. Other differences can also be included here, for example: “unreal number of links”, “a lot of graphics, animation and advertising”, “lack of focus on the page”, etc. All these points are associated with two reasons:



1. During the “modem” and limited Internet times, the creators of the first Chinese websites (usually multi-portals) tried to put as much information and links on the main page as possible so that the user could load this page once, [disconnect from the Internet], study it and open the links he needs. Naturally, all the links opened in the new windows by default, so that it was convenient to return to the main page and surf the site further. Over time, everyone got used to this state of affairs and such a “design” became a reference. And still the main pages of major media giants Sina , Sohu , Tencent QQ , as well as popular marketplaces are not minimalist. All of these sites, which are in the TOP-10 or TOP-50 of the most visited websites of Sine, naturally affect the young Chinese website builders.

Clarification No. 1: It is worth noting that often the internal sections and special projects of the above-listed Chinese Internet giants are more “humane”, cleaner and aesthetically pleasing. And the interfaces of the largest C2C / B2C-platform Taobao are refined to nanometer, which shows the work of UX-specialists on increasing conversion.

^{Home of the Chinese Internet giant Sina. Adblock is disabled, popup banners are closed.}



2. The second reason, with which I do not quite agree, but it is quite popular with Western inhabitants, that the Chinese have a different way of perceiving information. Read more about it in his article " Why Is Chinese Web Design So Bad? " Nick Johnson (Russian translation of the article read on Habré " Why is Chinese Web design so bad? ". In particular, Nick describes his theory this way:

In the West, we expect something like enlightenment, understanding, even entertainment (regardless of the subject matter of the site). The inhabitants of the East is not so. First, they receive information, and only then they comprehend it. That is, the essence of my theory is that when you visit the site, the Chinese are in data collection mode. In it, they do not react, do not reflect, do not interact with the site. The brain is busy only absorbing information [...]



Another aspect of Chinese culture is their habit of beating around the bush. Unlike Westerners, the Chinese do not like to immediately approach the essence of the conversation. For them, this method of communication is most acceptable. And it is not surprising that this habit was adopted by the sites.

Yes, the Chinese perception of the world can differ from the western one, especially if we try to measure it with our western ruler. But in practice, and based on the results of numerous tests and polls, the Chinese still choose the convenience and cleanliness of the interface, and not clogged sites with incomprehensible navigation. Here is one of these surveys , where the Chinese evaluated two sites about real estate: one with a “classic Chinese” design, the other - made in the Western style. 45 people out of 50 chose a clean interface, made "in a Western way." From this survey, the arguments of those people who still chose a clogged design "in Chinese" are interesting:

- This site has a lot of information on the page, which creates the impression of its completeness and seriousness. Another site looks too simple and unappealing. And how to contact customer support is also unclear.

- “Western” site looks too simple. From the main page it seems that there is not much information. The company is clearly not enough built-in live chat, so that you can quickly contact them.

From here you can make two conclusions:

1. Many Chinese people tend to assess the "seriousness" of the site by the presence on the main page of a large amount of information. This is directly related to the trust in this site.
2. The Chinese are actively using the built-in chat windows to contact customer support. Moreover, as practice shows, the confidence in e-mail is minimal. Online chat rooms (livechat technologies) or support via QQ messenger are much more efficient.

The advice here is one: correctly assess the audience of your future site. I have already given an example with the "Shanghai hipsters" and "provincial housewives." If you are making a site for a more adult audience, then you need to match without bending the stick. On sites for young and advanced, you can not be afraid to experiment and use Western practices. One thing is for sure: if you have your own internet business, then make sure that users can contact you in one click and get an answer to your question within a few minutes. The Chinese use it more often than others.





^{Compare: google.cn and google.com in 2010}

Clarification # 2: The greed of some Chinese webmasters causes the user to be forced to click on the links as often as possible to get the necessary information. For example: news that could be placed on one page is divided into three. Chinese patient users have long had to put up with this practice, but this does not mean that it suits them. They will gladly change this site to something better if they find out about it.

Chinese web design: from imitation to innovation, or the Light at the end of the tunnel

^{Douban Hipster Social Network Page}



Is it really that bad with Chinese web design? Should a foreign company embark on all serious things and make a Chinese website according to all canons: with blocks flying across the page, a couple of pop-up windows and music in the background?



There is no single answer to these questions. But I am inclined to believe that the “golden mean” exists and does not necessarily completely resemble bulky Chinese sites. On the contrary, you can go from the opposite and play on the difference from the gray majority. It is also not necessary to turn up your nose and stupidly, copying a foreign site into Chinese for a carbon copy. It is worth reading the materials about Chinese aesthetics, their concept of beauty and trying to combine brightness, dynamism, liveliness (which the Chinese definitely love) with simplicity and accessibility. Here I can not help but cite as an example my favorite Chinese sites Douban and Guokr (but do not forget that these sites are made for advanced youth).



Another argument in this favor, oddly enough: the Chinese love of copying. You probably know that clones to Western Internet startups appear very quickly in China (for Groupon in 2010-11 there were about 2000 clones in China). The first copies here usually appear within 1-2 months. Thanks to this rampant cloning, a huge number of western interfaces appear in China, some of which take root or undergo local file processing. All this (a) teaches Chinese web developers at a rapid pace, (b) brings new practices and innovations to the Chinese Internet, (c) generally improves the quality of Chinese design and modern websites.



My humble conclusion: there is light at the end of the tunnel. The taste of the Chinese Internet users is gradually improving, requests are growing, and the developers are reacting to this. Nevertheless, a large influx of Chinese Internet users is made up of illiterate people, which is why the main Chinese portals and news sites will remain for a long time in the early 90s.

Extra reading

Below I provide links that will help you better understand the difference between the preferences of the Chinese Internet user and the Western one, as well as learn more about the features of Chinese web design. Do not miss the comments on these articles.

• Showcase Of Web Design In China: From Imitation To Innovation (Selection of Chinese Web Design: From Imitation to Innovation)
• Chinese vs. Western web design
• What is the difference between the Chinese netizens and the US netizens? (The main differences of Chinese Internet users from Amerinkansky)

As usual, I look forward to your comments, additions and questions about the Chinese Internet in general and about Chinese web design in particular.



_{Thanks for the edits thanks Goblinoid}