Design

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How Culture Shapes User Experience: Western vs. Asian Perspectives

After the TikTok ban deadline on June 9th, many Western “TikTok refugees” found themselves using the Chinese app RedNote (小红书).

Last month, the temporary TikTok ban in the US sent thousands of users searching for alternatives. Some turned to Instagram Reels, while others opted for YouTube Shorts. However, a surprising number ended up on a completely different platform: RedNote, which is a hybrid of Instagram and TikTok developed in China.

Initially, it seemed like this switch would be temporary. RedNote has a busier and denser interface that presents more information upfront, contrasting sharply with Instagram’s clean, photo-based simplicity. By Western user experience (UX) standards, it should have felt overwhelming.

However, something surprising happened: Western users adapted well.

Despite cultural differences in design and some poor translations, many users managed to navigate the app, engage with its content, and even appreciate some of its design choices. This challenges the common assumption that Western users inherently need minimalism to function efficiently in digital spaces. It turns out they are more adaptable than expected, suggesting that our understanding of what constitutes “good UX” may be more flexible than we previously thought.

Western vs. Asian Product Design: Two Worlds, One Future

If you’ve ever visited a website from China, Japan, or Korea and thought, “Why does this feel so cluttered?” you’re not alone. Many Western designers perceive these layouts as overwhelming or outdated. However, in many Asian markets, high information density is not considered poor user experience—it’s expected.

What Accounts for the Difference?

Western design (in the US and Europe) emphasizes minimalism, ample whitespace, clear hierarchy, and progressive disclosure. The goal is to guide users through a structured experience with fewer distractions.

In contrast, Asian design (in China, Japan, and Korea) embraces upfront information. It features denser layouts, vibrant colors, and multifunctional interfaces. Users in these markets expect to quickly scan a lot of details instead of clicking through multiple pages.

Neither approach is inherently better. The example of RedNote demonstrates that users can adapt to both styles.

Key Differences in UI & UX

📜 Text and Language Density: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages do not use spaces between words, which makes the text appear more compact. Additionally, a single Chinese character can convey more meaning than an English word, resulting in interfaces that look busier even when they are not.

🔠 Typography and Hierarchy: Western design primarily relies on font size, whitespace, and structured grids for clarity. In contrast, Asian platforms often utilize color, contrast, and boxed sections rather than depending solely on typography.

Whitespace vs. Content First: Western design treats whitespace as a visual break to enhance readability. Conversely, many Asian interfaces prioritize maximizing screen space to ensure users receive all relevant information upfront.

📱 Navigation and Information Architecture: Chinese super-apps like WeChat and Alipay integrate multiple services into a single platform (such as messaging, payments, and shopping), while Western apps typically focus on a single function per product.

What Can Designers Learn from Asian UX?

Instead of viewing Western and Asian UX as opposing approaches, designers should move beyond their biases and explore how different methodologies can cater to various user needs.

  1. Reconsider Information Density: Rather than automatically adhering to the principle of “less is more,” consider situations where providing more information upfront can actually reduce user friction.
  2. Challenge Minimalism as a Rule: Over-simplification can lead to additional steps, making navigation less efficient.
  3. Trust Users to Adapt: The example of RedNote shows that Western users can successfully adjust to new UX patterns. This raises the question: which other design conventions could be effectively localized?

Multicultural UX: The Future of Design

RedNote has demonstrated that users are not confined to a single UX approach; they can adapt to, learn from, and engage with designs that challenge their norms. While RedNote is just one example, it highlights a significant shift in UX thinking—one that envisions a future where digital experiences are inspired by global influences rather than adhering to a single rigid philosophy.

Western design emphasizes clarity, hierarchy, accessibility, and user-friendly simplicity. In contrast, Asian design focuses on efficiency, multifunctionality, and content density.

The future of UX is multicultural, drawing on the strengths of both. As more products reach a global audience, we will see an increase in hybrid design approaches that balance hierarchy with efficiency, simplicity with depth, and whitespace with information density.

The best design transcends Western or Asian traditions; it is adaptable, inclusive, and shaped by the diverse needs of users around the world.

Micro-Interactions Conversion Rate

The “Almost There” Button Loading State

Transform dead clicks into engaging moments
Conversion impact: +12% in our A/B tests

Why it matters: Our A/B tests showed that users were 12% more likely to complete a signup flow when buttons provided immediate loading feedback.

The psychological principle at play? The “perceived waiting time” feels shorter when users get instant feedback.

The “Smooth Scroll” Navigation

Create seamless transitions that feel natural and intentional
Engagement impact: +8% scroll depth

 The “Ghost” Input Placeholder

Guide users through forms with elegant label animations
Form completion rate impact: +15%

Eye-tracking studies show that users spend 0.5 seconds less per form field with animated labels than static ones.

The “Magnetic” Hover State

Make clickable elements respond with subtle attraction
Click accuracy improvement: +5%

Negligible when properly throttled, but brings a premium feel to important CTAs.

The “Smart” Form Validation

Catch errors before they happen with intuitive feedback
Error reduction: -23%

A/B test results:
Real-time validation reduced form abandonment by 23% compared to on-submit validation.

The “Breathing” Loading State

Turn waiting time into a calming experience
Perceived performance improvement: +18%

Psychology insight:
Breathing animations at 2–3 second intervals match human breathing patterns, making waiting more natural.

The “Haptic” Click Feedback

Add physical dimension to digital interactions
Mobile engagement: +7%

Device support:
While not all devices support haptic feedback, degrading gracefully to visual-only feedback ensures a consistent experience.

The “Anticipatory” Hover State

Predict user actions for lightning-fast responses
Navigation efficiency: +9%

Performance tip:
Implement a smart caching strategy to avoid unnecessary API calls.

The “Progressive” Image Load

Transform image loading from jarring to elegant
Perceived load time reduction: -32%

User psychology:
Users perceive progressively loading images as loading 32% faster than traditional loading methods.

The “Elastic” Pull-to-Refresh

Add playful physics to mobile interactions
Mobile retention: +5%

Engagement data:
Users are 5% more likely to return to apps with natural-feeling pull-to-refresh animations.

The “Contextual” Right-Click

Replace generic menus with thoughtful options
User satisfaction: +28%

Users report 28% higher satisfaction when apps provide contextual right-click options.

The “Memory” Form State

Never lose user input to accidental navigation
Form completion: +18%

Impact data:
Forms with state preservation see 18% higher completion rates.

Invisible Interfaces

Instead of having a human interact with your UI, in the future, it’ll be an AI agent using your UI on behalf of its human. At the limit, human users will vanish from the web and many software applications.

A likely scenario is that the “user” only interacts with his or her agent, and the agent then performs any specific interactions with the services needed to accomplish the tasks the agent was ordered to perform.

– Jakob Nielsen

AI is the new UI because it fundamentally changes how we interact with technology.

Ghibli Style Image vs. ChatGPT/LLM

Large Language Models (LLMs) do not store entire images, such as complete frames from a Miyazaki film. Instead, they decompose these images into their component parts and are trained on those elements. This process creates a new product: a “style,” which is essentially a mathematical model of what could be termed “Ghibli-ness.” This model can then be applied to new imagery.

Currently, there is no legal precedent for protecting a “style”; copyright law only covers specific expressions of that style. In other words, you cannot copyright a music genre like “ska” or an art movement such as “impressionism.” While people may create and describe “styles” and “movements,” no one owns them—it is only specific artworks that can be owned.

This idea was reinforced by a recent conclusion from a U.S. District Judge in a case involving record companies. They claimed that when Anthropic’s Claude (another popular chatbot) remixes their song lyrics, it constitutes copyright infringement. However, as Enrique Dans explains, “if the system does not literally copy… there can be no infringement.”

Transforming UX: A Fresh Perspective with AI

As AI-driven systems diminish the need for traditional user interfaces, the role of designers must evolve beyond just pixels and layouts. The real challenge lies in understanding how AI transforms user experiences and redefining what it means to be a UX designer in this new era. Will you adapt, or will you be left behind?

In the past, user experience (UX) was largely equated with user interface (UI), and this made sense. The UI was the main point of interaction, which is why we relied on graphical tools like Figma, Sketch, and InVision to create our designs and prototypes. The visual elements we developed were central to the user experience.

However, this perspective is undergoing a significant shift. If you look at most startups in the tech sector, you’ll notice a trend towards minimal interfaces. In fact, the most effective interface for AI may be one that is almost nonexistent. Consider this: what if there were no interface at all?

What matters is UX, not UI.

To paraphrase Alan Cooper in “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum,” AI-first systems—especially those that are agent-first—are akin to “dancing robotware.” Just because these robots aren’t yet performing like Baryshnikov doesn’t mean they lack value; this “dancing robotware” already adds significant value to various workflows. However, because AI is inherently “dancing robotware,” the user interface (UI) is not critically important to the customer.

In other words, AI-first applications are not particularly sensitive to UI design, while they are extremely sensitive to user experience (UX). Sure, having the right buttons and effective ways to display outputs is necessary, and certain design choices can enhance usability. However, if you focus solely on where to place buttons, choosing colors, and labeling tabs and controls, you are, to put it mildly, missing the point entirely.

Let me give you a real-world example: let’s say you are creating an AI-first application that will quickly summarize a document. How that summary is presented in the UI almost does not matter.

  • Background color? Nope. Not a chance.
  • Font sizes? Don’t make me laugh.
  • Where is it on the page? Does not matter. Pick a spot. Any spot. Release the feature, move it post-Beta if you find a better spot.
  • Is the content in a frame or uses the whole page? Hmmm, maybe that matters a little. But not really. Not unless you completely screw up the display (but most of us know how not to do that… Right?

So, what matters in the AI-first UX?

  • The length of the content.
  • Organization of the summary.
  • Its completeness.
  • Its accuracy, reliability, readability, and scannability.
  • Unique bespoke data from your enterprise or your customers that is used to add value to the AI summary.
  • If it gets used alongside the original document, or if it has a life of its own.
  • If it has an API.
  • How quickly it is delivered to the customer.
  • Etc.

In other words,

What matters is UX. NOT UI.

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