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A few UI differences between Chinese and English apps
A tale of 2 cultures.
Growing up in Singapore, I am exposed to cultural influences from the West as well as the East. I use Western apps like Pinterest as well as its Chinese close equivalent 小红书 (Xiao Hong Shu). There are definitely differences in the digital products’ user experience and here are some of my thoughts:
Language system
To start, we have to understand the language systems used by the Chinese and English languages.
Chinese uses a logographic system — a single written character like “好” represents an entire word. A character is made up of intricate strokes so it can appear that there is less white space visually.
English uses an alphabetic system — letters are used to record words. Alphabetic words have irregular lengths (think supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) while logographic characters are squarish and regular in size. This affects how the same information can be packed into the same pixel area.
Design System Implications
Chinese characters are little individual squares, making it easier to design layouts. With a consistent text length, UI tabs can be of shorter length and buttons more regular in size.
