Christina Xu on Chinese UX

Published: August 6, 2017 (Updated: February 2, 2023) in business | 商業 | 상업 | ビジネス, china | 中國 | 중국 | 中華, consumer behaviour | 消費者行為 | 소비자 행동, culture | 文明 | 미디어와 예술 | 人文, design | 設計 | 예술과 디자인 | デザイン, economics | 經濟學 | 경제학 | 経済, ideas | 想法 | 생각 | 考える, innovation | 革新 | 독창성 | 改変, marketing | 營銷 | 마케팅 | マーケティング, online | 線上 | 온라인으로 | オンライン, technology | 技術 | 기술 | テクノロジー, web of no web | 無處不在的技術 | 보급 기술 | 普及したテクノロジー, wireless | 無線 |무선 네트워크 | 無線 by renaissance chambara aka Ged Carroll.

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About Christina Xu

I’ve been a big fan of work by Christina Xu for a while now and this presentation is a great example of her research. She has worked as an ethnographer for a range of clients including Daimler Benz, VF Corporation (the people who who own Timberland, North Face and Supreme) and Spotify. This presentation on Chinese UX in action is well worth bookmarking to watch it if you don’t have time now. Save it and watch it during your lunch break.

Key takeouts

Etiquette about the order of proffering versus scanning a QRcode to exchange (WeChat) contact information
Digitisation of red envelopes drove take up in mobile payments
Great examples of online to offline (O2O) interaction in processes and services that are continually expanding.
Driven by ubiquity of mobile phones 95.5 phones per 100 people with a number of people using two phones
Users across ages and demographics
Mobile adoption is coming on top of a rapid industrialisation. People are getting used to a whole much of stuff at once. Interesting points about the lack of social norms or boundaries on the usage of online / mobile service in the real world. I’ve seen people live their online life in the cinema there are NO boundaries as Christina says.
Mobile payments came up the same time as credit card payments
Population density on the eastern seaboard of China. Density has helped delivery services and high speed public transport
DidiChuxing allows for tailored surge benefits for drivers rather than search-and-forget version on Uber
WeChat commerce doesn’t facilitate international shipping
Westerners build messenger experiences for scale with automation, Chinese look for bespoke customisable ‘squishy’ experiences down to western interpretation of convenience. Chinese convenience is an absence of ‘nuisance experiences’ – real world interactions help prevent friction. Or is it culturally sanctioned ‘nuisance experiences’ that deals with differing experiences