As the world globalizes, it is crucial to understand different audiences and their perspectives. A noticeable divide in UI/UX design can be in Eastern vs Western interfaces, which is a result of cultural differences. With an increasingly interconnected globe, how might we create localized experiences that resonate with diverse global audiences?
I’m sure many of you reading this are already familiar with Western UI/UX design, whether you’re aware of it or not. It’s ingrained in our mental paradigms of how the world works: what design archetypes “should” look like: minimalism (be it literally through bountiful white space or metaphorically through a seamless user experience) and avoiding cognitive overload at any cost.
Think of how westernized shopping sites limit how much information is presented at each stage of interaction, showing you the full product details only when you click on a specific listing. The difference is really noticeable when you contrast Amazon and TaoBao (the Chinese equivalent of Amazon).
Amazon (left) vs Taobao (right)
Whereas a Chinese audience might find the Amazon homepage underwhelming and uninformative, an American user might feel overloaded by the amount of information immediately on the TaoBao homepage. It all depends on what UI-UX paradigm you’re used to, and how much information you’re used to being able to instantly access.
Contrast this with the East, and I generalize here, but overall experiences feature heavy gamification, boldness to compete in a crowded digital environment, and presentation of a greater expanse of information to its audience at every step of the interaction flow. There is priority given to informing the user on details of all the options, all at once, so that they are given the resources to make the best possible choice of which item to further investigate. This parallels the more collectivist culture present there. Collectivism takes pride in the community and contributes to a greater good for everyone, whereas individualist cultures operate with the self in mind, and actions taken with individualism in consideration revolve around catering towards that individual and their strengths.
The difference in culture and UI/UX can even be seen reflected in the language structure of the two regions. Western languages tend to use a phonetic alphabet, whether it be Slavic, Germanic, or the Romantic language families. Information is conveyed using more space, but makes up for this by being less complicated at first glance. Eastern languages, on the other hand, tend to use logographic systems, such as the characters that make up Chinese Mandarin, Japanese kanji, and previously, Vietnamese Chữ Hán or Korean’s hanja. These require greater amounts of memorization to master, but convey vast amounts of information in a much smaller space.
The benefit of Western languages is that they are easily localized, with flexible applications of typeface or font and predictable word length. Languages with more complex characters, like those in Eastern languages, face greater issues of legibility and visual balance within user interface design.
Below you can see how the romanized alphabet (top row) contrasts with various logographic languages (middle and bottom rows).
In essence, interfaces share similarities with their language structures. Eastern UI/UX aims to supply you with as much information as possible, particularly on commerce sites, and Western UI/UX almost always operates under the assumption that the user already knows what they want or are looking for. This allows the West to prioritize directness, while the East favors rich and implicit communication, which lines up with their low-context and high-context cultures, respectively.