Interesting... But you use western to mean US. iMessage is a US phenomenon. In Europe it's usually WhatsApp or Messenger. Even with iPhone users. Same with cars and public transport. But to be fair, the rest probably applies. Except many places in Europe hardly ever use cash either and haven't for years. But mostly use tap to pay with a card or a phone and then various apps for money transfers.
Be careful with broad stroke cultural commentaries such as the one in the video. They almost always fall apart under scrutiny or at least are only applicable in strict conditions. Facebook tried a proto version of “holistic super app” just a few years ago and was really stopped by privacy regulations and pushback against predatory monetization. Two things basically nonexistent in China. I am from Taiwan - an Eastern culture with strong Chinese culture - where is my super app?
I think the split between cash-centric and card-centric countries in Europe is almost 50/50 with a slight majority that prefers to use cards. Germany and Italy are very cash-centric, for instance, the UK and France not so much.
You also can't use Google Maps' wayfinding features in Korea. Even foreigners traveling to Korea more likely use Naver or Kakao Maps. Meanwhile, Google Maps in Japan works perfectly fine, even telling you which metro exit to go out of.
Although true, I still find G Maps pretty weak for public transportation overall. I'm a Swiss living in Singapore and I don't use Google in neither of the two countries
This, Google Maps is the default in Japan as well. Though yeah, it also tells you the right gate, and even the right car to be in, at least in Kanto trains. I do prefer using Navitime personally, as it has better pedestrian directions, especially within train stations
I wholeheartedly agree with your last statement, therefore I do want to point out by making an entire 'Western' category, and then only giving examples of the anglosphere, you are omitting a large number of nuances. You have a very Americanised view of the West. Your point about analytical cultures is also very dependent on where you are in Europe. It is true that the Germanic languages/cultures are more analytical but other European cultures might be quite different from this. The only thing standing is that we all tend to not use super apps, which is also a result of competition laws, and that we like peaceful interfaces.
@@phoebeyutbt Any of the ones not included in your East vs West map + Latin/Southern Europe :) Western EU + NA are very different from Latin & Slavic EU -- you just don't hear about it unless you're into cultural studies.
Today being 15th Nov. 2024, I saw your video on how Google fixed India's Street name problem. There was something spectacular about your narration, I couldn't tell, in my quest to find out, I probed your channel for other contents, found this one and I realized something, apart from detailed explanation, you teach as well. The subtle sprinkle of language lessons is also superb!
Excellent work, Phoebe. I was one of your first hundred or so followers. I am happy to see such great content and your channel do so well so quickly. Bravo.
Great presentation! I really like that you try to understand this phenomenon from the analytical vs holistic views, although I feel it has more to do with regulations & social inertia than western/eastern ways of thinking. And as someone who was born and raised in China and lives in the US, I think holistic is a loaded word - without analytics, holistic thinking is basically synonymous with ignorance 😂
In the West, individualism and independence are prioritized, while in the East, family structures play a central role, with parents and children often living together well into adulthood, sharing responsibilities. Westerners tend to manage different aspects of life independently, while more collective cultures rely on mutual support. This dynamic helps explain why "super apps" are thriving in Latin America, where community life resembles the Eastern model. However, Latin Americans are more cautious with financial apps, preferring to keep their bank accounts separate from other services. In the end, our technological preferences reflect how our cultures have evolved over time.
Quick point on google maps: I used it extensively living in Tokyo, where it reliably tells you which train car to enter for transfers and other information. Not sure about Korea, but it google maps offers more detail and information on public transport than it does say in a city like San Francisco.
Phoebe, please discuss the regulations of each country in designing official websites for government agencies. I would like to see a comparison in the US, Europe, China, Japan, India and Singapore.Thank you
this really inspires me to learn more about designing for other cultures besides my own! i think it would make for a great portfolio project to create a few various "localized" versions of an app while taking your message from this video into consideration.
Good video but big correction on your maps chapter. Map providers like Google Maps typically do not own their transit data. Data like bus arrival times, platform numbers and station layout is provided by the governmental transit agencies themselves. And in most of these data APIs, accuracy and availability are very poor in the US. (Speaking as someone who’s had to struggle developing with GTFS a lot.) Some apps like Transit (based in Montreal) try to crowdsource more accurate arrival times from real-time user analytics, but it’s still inadequate. You’re never making that super precise transfer. Just as Americans and Canadians use transit less, the public data infrastructure for transit is lower quality, too.
Nice video! As an East Asian living in Europe, and I feel like a lot of your descriptions of "the west" only applies to the US (and to some extent Canada)... iMessage is basically a US-only thing for example, and Google Maps is still really good for public transport in Europe, as well as in East Asia like Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan (not to mention transit-oriented apps like Citymapper which started in London). Google Maps not being a thing in Korea was mainly due to legal restrictions on mapping data imposed by the Korean government, and Google Maps didn't even have an interactive map for Korea until not very long ago.
One crucial point to make a busy UI like Eastern apps is the language. The 3 examples you have all use some sort of Hanzi, which can display a lot of text in a small space. For asian countries that using Latin, apps look more western style.
So interesting. I am also a bit tired of everything replaced by screens. Physical interaction still matters. Really like the idea that things can be made in different ways, and that what you know is not all out there.
I'm from Sri Lanka. We don't really fall within either of these western/eastern categories (even though we are an Asian country). I personally detest super apps. My personality aligns more with the western style of analytical thinking. I like compartmentalizing things. Hell, I have separate email addresses and bank accounts solely dedicated for different purposes. So I naturally prefer separate apps doing one thing (or a couple of related things) and doing them well. However there is a popular super app in my country that has similar features of WeChat. I don't have official stats but it is quite popular in certain demographics but not as widespread as WeChat in China. I guess we kind of exist in the middle. Like my country is literally located in between the western and eastern ones lol.
It's probably because South Asians like Sri Lankans and Indians began using computers and mobile phones in English language. South Asian languages weren't supported during the early days of the Internet. Because of that, even today, many young South Asians don't even change their system language to their native language from the default English language. So South Asians were kind of forced to learn the western UI/UX. This is not the case with young Chinese, Korean, Japanese kids... They always used their own languages in tech.
I think this is a brain language thing. Here in brazil we got a thing i feel both americans and asians lack, witch is a VIBE language. Its very hard to explain but people here dont communicate through what the words mean, but what vibe they express... its funny because when contacting americans or asians we need to switch to our "obvious" mode. Being as litteral as possible other wise the person wont get the vibe and end up doing something stupid... lol its hard to explain.
@@outrahistoria2378Thanks for sharing! I’m Chinese and I think perhaps that VIBE language applies to some of the Chinese culture as well. Imo it’s highly contextualized and we often have this “language” used among civil servants working for regional governments.
@@phoebeyutbt its a combo of suttle comunications like tone, context, body language and who knows what else... i feel like this is good for relationships but terrible for business and more direct things (although some areas may benefit). Its called by many the "malemolencia"
Very interesting topic but I see 2 mistakes: it seems you identify the west with the USA, by neglecting Europe. Also, we are just fed a certain app style because someone decided to do so, for example many of us would prefere a more detailed maps and in fact there are apps like moovit. Its just thag ggle for some reason doesn't update it. A more important thing that I saw while in china was that there were a lot of advertisement for example in the maps app which would be strange here
We use moovit in Argentina too! I didn’t know it was a thing elsewhere too. Here google maps is pretty decent, but it really lacks on the public transport aspect. Like we only use moovit to look for a specific route we want to do with public transport, and google maps for everything else. You wouldn’t look for a specific store, place on landmark on moovit, you’d probably look for the address on google maps and then use moovit to know what bus, train, metro (or combination of them) you need to do to get there. The thing with google maps, is that the algorithm sucks. Maybe if you walk for like 5 minutes there’s a bus that takes you directly to wherever you need to go, but google maps will instead suggest you to take a closer bus and then take a different bus or metro line (which, unless you care about walking such short distance, it’s very inconvenient). Also, in moovit you can look up the whole route of every bus and train, while maps doesn’t show that info for some reason although they clearly have it.
Top video and bonus points for featuring Naomi Wu who is sadly missed since being shut down on TH-cam. 7/11s were bought out by a Japanese company in Australia. While I have not checked one out since the takeover, they now sell many of the Japanese foods and snacks one finds in Japan's 7/11s. The point of mentioning it is I wonder if the Japanese owned 7/11s now feature a more Asian mindset towards the interior signage and information. BTW interesting top and jewellery 💯
5:57 except Google Maps has great public transport directions for Budapest, Hungary, it shows you more than enough data to navigate around perfectly. On the other hand apple maps sucks here it says things for driving as „turn right onto M1-M1 highway road route“.
the reason for super apps in china is due to convenience. imagine your friend sending a quote for a split bill and instead of having to open another app to pay, you can just instantly pay in the same app. or if you see an item you like on social media, instead of having to look for it on a shopping website, you can buy directly from the creator in the same app. same thing applies to maps apps, instead of looking for a certain place in gmaps then having to transfer that information to uber/lyft, you can directly order a taxi to the place you've selected. it also increases convenience for foreigners coming into the country since they only need one app to do everything, as opposed to downloading multiple apps to do different things. i dont know why such convenience isn't available in most western countries 🤷♂
Interesting - perhaps that is why my Chinese designed and made HiFi streamer, Eversolo DMP A8 has an interface and app that has everything but hides simplicity in a maze of features. For me, it’s easy to use as I get complexity, however, my wife absolutely hates it as she has to perform 4 actions to play the radio station she wants. Our previous streamer had presets front and centre, allowed the hiding of inputs and autosensed inputs hiding complexity. I have written to Zidoo, the parent company and they have responded favourably. Their players typically get sold to audiophiles so more often these are intelligent well off users who crave full control. My point to them was, you design the software, build in toggles to reduce complexity and allow presets that allow customisation. A few weeks ago they allowed streaming services not being used to be hidden, a small win for my wife.
One point I think is important about super-apps is that in Western countries -- and maybe more importantly, the US -- there's a very strong bias against monopolies, and I don't think that's the case in countries like China. As we've seen with multiple lawsuits targeting Google, Apple, and Meta, I don't think it would be acceptable to have the same app/company provide map, payment, messaging, ride-sharing, shopping, and various other services... especially in the same app. I'm not saying Google, for example, does not already provide all those services individually, but if suddenly they would provide it all in the same app you already open every day, that would form a much, much stronger argument for anti-competitive practices, market manipulation, and monopolistic behavior.
There has to be something with the habit we have to find a good if, and only if, it does one function only. Here in Brazil, we use WhatsApp for convenience because the most part of the population have android phones, we use Spotify over Apple Music for the same reason, we don't care much for ecosystem, privacy (the majority of us) nor for multifunction apps, convenience is a must. As for payments, in the last 4 years, our economy turned upside down ,with the creation by the government, the PIX, a tecnology that allows payment through internet so much simple, as said early, privacy is not a must in Brazil, although we don't like to have our data collected as it's in China, so the PIX even though it is a government way to watch our transactions, the convenience it provides makes it used more than cash nowadays in Brazil. So, when compared to China and to others western countries, convenience thrives as the main reason for using a app, but the similarities ends there, because we use to thrust in app quality if it has only a function and do it well.
Super Interesting analysis, though as a European I strongly have to object that either Gordon Ramsey or the U.S. is representative of western „thinking“ 😀 For context, I don’t mean to insult any Americans, we all know that the U.S. has incredible talent, but given the education system and current voter behaviour we also know that this talent is not equally spread across the nation…
Though you touched on your video when mentioning Google maps, regulation and overall governance is a very, very big factor! In the US there are regulations to "break" big corporations when they get too much power/market share. Therefore a western WeChat could not be possible due to that and also finance regulations and other bits.
This is defo an interesting topic! Thanks for offering your views, Phoebe :) I do have to point out that I feel like you’re confusing “design” and “function” in your videos. (btw I’m speaking as a Korean Software Engineer who grew up in diverse cultures - 6yrs in Africa, 11yrs in Europe, 2yrs in America and 8yrs in Asia) *Just because East Asian (high-context collective societies) apps tend to be super-apps (that offers many info/functionalities), doesn’t mean they “should” have messy/cluttered designs.* East Asian super apps are not optimized with their designs imo, and should simplify more. For example, finance apps in Korea used to be very messy/cluttered until Toss came along in 2015 and dominated the game - people love it because it has the simplest designs. I just think most of these Chinese/Korean/Japanese super-apps lack the incentive to innovate their UI/UX because they have so much power and are protected by their governments. They don’t have to compete with other global apps with optimal/simpler designs AND often even better services/capabilities/info. They don’t have to be so obsessed with what the customers really want, or will want, especially with the design. In a way, customers themselves are also not so familiar/aware of how simpler designs can improve their experience (simply because they haven't seen much). But this is slowly changing, at least in Korea. US apps (with 10x simpler designs) are replacing Korean ones (with complicated designs): Google is slowly beating Naver in search, TH-cam crushed all Korean video platforms, kids use Instagram/Facebook over Kakao for messaging. Whereas Japanese just generally tend to be more conservative with tech innovations -- for example, even their main messaging app is made by Korea’s Naver. And China is just China LOLL they can’t even access US apps without VPN.
Sooo spot-on abt the East Asian mega apps lol. I’m Chinese and totally agree w ur take on Chinese mega apps. One fun fact tho is that some young Chinese (me included) tend to set their app language into English jus becuz it’ll make UI look simpler. For example, I’ve long set my WeChat language as English. I don’t get to have various in-app functions (live-streaming, music, short videos, etc) on this app, but I’m able to focus on the functions that indeed save my life (instant messaging, WeChat pay and WeChat moments, etc).
I live in Afghanistan here some app and service don't work so I use VPN sometimes I change my location to Romanian UK Japan and Canada and more but they all look really different special app store and Google services that also shows the difference in culture that effect the internet
5:47 this framing is so wrong, Google Maps doesn't work in Korea because they won't allow the goverment a back door to their data and won't give them a map license to opperate. If you talk to any Japanese person they will tell you Google maps works great for public transportation in Japan, a country whos public transportation is on par or better than Koreas. This video is so poorly researched.
It is great to add detail if you can filter the information, so that you only add useful details. This allows the user to find information without having to click. But as a western user, I don't trust that the designer is able to filter the information for me, so I automatically assume that the details are useless.
Really interesting though I wish you had gone into more detail about the Japanese pay pay app. you just showed it and didn’t really dive into it or breakdown why it gives reassurance to Japanese users. It was a very surface level answer could you elaborate?
We Arabs love actions & results than emotions & talks , ok in Egypt there is a proverb say " Tow good words better than a newspaper" so we like a few strait direct words to make overall results , the secret is about a few simple comprehensive keywords , so we Arabs don't like distraction from much data in the topic and in the same moment we like to know the whole core of the topic , I know you are confused from that ! , but believe me Arabs very easy to understand them and their tutorials & topics .
I feel like some of your comparisons between Western and Eastern app design aren't so much to do with the cultural context or what - users want but what the company making these apps wants. I would *very much prefer* PayPay's UI over Google Pay or PayPal's app. UI design in Western apps and websites often feels like it's hiding the most useful things from me, like they want me to not notice some things I can do, or don't think I'm smart enough to handle more than 3 options at once. I want information density! I don't want to hunt through 3 different menus to find something I need! I think a lot of it is down to the motivation of the designer - often, it's "retention", "total spend", or "time in app", not "give the user useful tools". Papypay has a couple of things I'd want to hide - Phone Plans, Investing - but other than that? it looks better on all fronts.
Here in argentina theres applying kind of similar thing with mercado libre (like amazon app), mercado pago (pay app), and now recently they made mercado play (streaming app) similar what is like kakao multiuse apps.
As someone who has to deal with wechat, it is terrible, you can't login on multiple phones/devices on the same time because it logs you out. It takes up 1GB of storage without even being logged in. Holistic vs Analytical comes off a bit shallow because most in east asia get apple devices which are way more holistic compared to android which can hide less stuff and has a wider range of options. I think a super app would have worked here in the US(ignoring gov regulations for a sec) if facebook capitalized on it sooner but we have more competition in general
The video conveniently omits cases outside of US and East Asia. 60% Londoners commute via public transport but still rely on Google maps. Asian cities like Bangkok and Singapore are primarily public transport oriented yet everyone just used google maps.
TBH, you start with a thesis and you build arguments around it and they barely make sense. Western apps also want a "holistic" thing - Facebook does a marketplace, chat, tiktoks, restaurant menus, business sites and whatever else (I'm not a FB user). Google Maps is worse in Poland for public transport because Poland sucks at integrating it so we use also a 3rd party app like Korea (why can't I use KakaoMap in Poland if it's so good for public transport according to you?). But I use Google Maps whenever I'm in Spain, Germany, Netherlands etc because it's amazing and tells me all you listed for the KakaoMap. So you start with a thesis and then provide sloppy arguments that don't really hold water if you actually use any of that stuff.
I agree with you, however there are other videos on the topic that explain the Eastern super apps in much more detail. The Facebook ecosystem dwarfs in comparison with Chinese super apps. While in the west we have uber, Glovo, TikTok, WhatsApp, PayPal, eBay, google maps, etc (or your local versions) In china they have all of that together inside just one app, and with even more features and services (you can literally make a doctors appointment, a restaurant reservation or get an appointment to get divorced lol). She kinda explained it but didn’t dive very deep into the details. These super apps are indeed operating systems (just like IOS or Android), these apps have their own “app stores” built in, so users can literally download apps inside the app itself. You could only have that super app installed into your phone and still do the same stuff we do in the west with a dozen different apps.
Making technology a better place in the word should be Key 🔑. Having said that, physical money should be the primary backup, if a digital shutdown and or hack happens in the current digital currency in place. Differences of culture does play a major role when designing an App, but not really, I’m thinking that it comes down to the clients of the designers. See, some designers design some really fancy stuff, but they only want certain individuals to use the fancy stuff and that is when culture comes into play, cos some other designers also may design a real fancy thing, but that designer wants everyone to use his her creation, but why one designer wants everyone to use and enjoy their creation, while the other does not? Now, back in the days technology from the west used to be everywhere and popular, but now the technology from the east is everywhere and dominant world wide and just for that one reason, cos they are sharing the technology worldwide, such as worldwide domination of digital usage, if that makes any sense. The only weakness in the digital technology from the east is that language barrier. The west makes it easy to understand language with the main three languages, English, Spanish, and Chinese, must learn one or the other world wide, while in the East lacks the three language translations which are English, Spanish, and Chinese. Do you agree? Cool informative and discussion video, enjoyed viewing it and I been wanting to download the WeChat App in iPhone, will it work in California? Is there a WeChat standalone phone? Don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty cool right? See you on the next video! 😺💪👩💻📱🥰✨💎
Interesting. Ever since I was introduced to Eastern app designs, I noticed they seem better/ more convenient/ less clunky. This video just explained why.
As a designer, we don't speak to users using words. We speak visually through our design. Unfortunately the vocabulary of visual language, especially in mobile apps, is very limited and very basic. It not yet have reach levels of sophistication of written or verbal language. So it's hard to communicate certain functions to users clearly. But that is our reason to exist as designers right?
can you explore and explain the design in Turkiye. It is interesting because it has both of these design styles used. For example super apps are becoming a thing for example "getir" has 9 different functions from food ordering to job haunting to calling a cab etc. But on the other hand we also use imessage and whatsapp or the softwares we use in the work life in corporate etc. is very western.
Could super-apps also be more popular in Asia simply because the tech industry there developed differently? Westerners use different apps for different things because the apps are (or were) made by different companies. Whereas in China, you have tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent that built lots of different tools for different things and integrated them into their own apps much earlier.
I guess this is in part why I am regularly annoyed with apps here in Europe I really prefer a more holistic approach instead of separate apps for everything. Especially for the regular every day stuff. If I order something it is often a toss up between a half dozen delivery companies each with different costs, different delivery times and dates and, of course, each their own app. Same goes for banking or public transport. I would also love to ditch Google Maps.. but it is sadly the only good one here in Europe. The entire thing also just ends up being a giant waste of resources and money.. every one of these apps needs their own development team and bespoke security patches and while it is often sold to us as a more competitive market it rarely actually has this as a result. In the end, for many things, a monopoly is by far the best solution the problem with that in the west is that monopolies, just like everything else, only has one single mandate: Profit above all else. Of course you're going to have problems if you have no accountability towards society.
A lot of these apps are trying to *compete*, not co-operate seamlessly. And a lot of them should have just been websites, not apps, but it's better for their metrics and profit to develop a junky app.
Is this the reason why Samsung's One UI and Other Chinese Android Manufacturer's Android user interfaces looked cluttered, can be difficult to understand sometimes? Maybe that's one of the reasons why people choose Apple's iOS and Google's Pixel UI because it's clean, optimistic, and has premium bold text.
you should make a youtube video about "upi" in india. your audience will be shocked, and i'm hoping you too- delightfully. Give us the right clout, foreigners, not the pretentious "this is a dirty place". we're done. recognise our scientific/technological prowess.
Why would you show a one on one conversation in iMessage vs main chat screen in WeChat? The equivalent chat screen in iMessage (or Messenger or WhatsApp, etc) look very similar. Also Google (and others) could bundle their services into one app but they’d be massive apps. By having individual apps you can pick and choose (helps with coding, updates, not wasting disk space, etc). In China maybe there is less choice for a reason…
I feel super apps concept it not good because giving it give all power and control to one app which is dangerous because our whole data store in one app. Having multiple apps for different purposes can enhance efficiency and focus on specific functions, which is often better than a single super app trying to do everything.
Thank you for making this video. I'm tired of Eastern design being written off as 'outdated', and cultural differences driving design preferences being overlooked or even the idea that culture informs design being seen as a fringe theory.
The South East Asian that have to dealing with these two cultures in everyday life 😂
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The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that it’s not just about the applications themselves, but rather the approach to what operating systems represent. In the West, we use iOS and Android, while in the East, it seems they are striving to create micro-operating systems. And that’s the fundamental difference.
I love these east vs west designs. I always watch them even though i know what most people say about the differences. I always seem to learn something new
I would say that Facebook is a rare example of a western "mega app". You have the regular facebook stuff, but then also marketplace, gaming, dating, and then, of course, all the stolen features from other apps. It's a bit intimidating, so Im glad my generation barely uses it.
Great stuff! Thanks for sharing:) Have been living in Tokyo for 6 years. Noticed that Japan has slowly been moving away from cash and that the process is maybe accelerating, especially among young generations. As to product design, when creating new digital products or services in non-traditional industries today, designers aim to prioritize simplicity. However, they approach this with a nuanced understanding of how Japanese users perceive simplicity, balancing it with a sense of reassurance. Younger generations in Japan frequently use apps and products developed outside the country, which has made the use of global UI language increasingly preferred in new products.
You must know what the The thinking of Arabian person , We are very strait & direct with the point and we say a few words to explain the whole situation like example if I wanna describe very stingy man I will say " this man if his kids & wife will die from disease he will never ever pay for them" , so the best tutorials in you tube is the Arabian tutorials from Egypt & middle east .
That’s literally the opposite from being direct lol, you just described using analogies and metaphors to explain a very simple point (that a man is stingy). You could simply say “that man is stingy”, but instead you choose to describe a whole hypothetical scenario and how that man would behave in such scenario. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with doing that, we do that in my country too, but i wouldn’t call it straightforward or direct.
@@agme8045 I get you maybe I give wrong example but , we Arabs love actions & results than emotions & talks , ok in Egypt there is a proverb say " Tow good words better than a newspaper" so we like a few strait direct words to make overall results , the secret is about a few simple comprehensive keywords , so we Arabs don't like distraction from much data in the topic and in the same moment we like to know the whole core of the topic , I know you are confused from that ! , but believe me Arabs very easy to understand them and their tutorials & topics .
personally I don't think I am really happy with any one of the two design models. I would appreciate more details in the map like it is with the Korean one. Extra information there is really good. I hate the look of that Japanese payment app. I think it is very silly to put clutter in that when you really need to just focus on whom you are paying and how much. Just saying that I really love and hate some parts of both the design philosophies.
I can't believe she chose iMessage? Like What's App is right there lol Also 45% of people in the US have an Android phone so iMessage is not as common as WeChat in China.
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Interesting... But you use western to mean US. iMessage is a US phenomenon. In Europe it's usually WhatsApp or Messenger. Even with iPhone users. Same with cars and public transport.
But to be fair, the rest probably applies. Except many places in Europe hardly ever use cash either and haven't for years. But mostly use tap to pay with a card or a phone and then various apps for money transfers.
There is similar conflation. For maps too, Europeans do not as commonly drive to work (as they do in the US). Public transportation is very common.
Yeah US and Europe are wildly different in culture and how we think. As much as the difference between Asia and US.
Be careful with broad stroke cultural commentaries such as the one in the video. They almost always fall apart under scrutiny or at least are only applicable in strict conditions.
Facebook tried a proto version of “holistic super app” just a few years ago and was really stopped by privacy regulations and pushback against predatory monetization. Two things basically nonexistent in China.
I am from Taiwan - an Eastern culture with strong Chinese culture - where is my super app?
I think the split between cash-centric and card-centric countries in Europe is almost 50/50 with a slight majority that prefers to use cards. Germany and Italy are very cash-centric, for instance, the UK and France not so much.
You also can't use Google Maps' wayfinding features in Korea. Even foreigners traveling to Korea more likely use Naver or Kakao Maps. Meanwhile, Google Maps in Japan works perfectly fine, even telling you which metro exit to go out of.
Although true, I still find G Maps pretty weak for public transportation overall. I'm a Swiss living in Singapore and I don't use Google in neither of the two countries
@@robezy0Singaporean here and Google Maps sucks for public transportation here for some reason. Folks have always told me to use Apple Maps
@PleasedTown Yes, the times are totally off. I use Citymapper and it works great!
This, Google Maps is the default in Japan as well. Though yeah, it also tells you the right gate, and even the right car to be in, at least in Kanto trains.
I do prefer using Navitime personally, as it has better pedestrian directions, especially within train stations
I wholeheartedly agree with your last statement, therefore I do want to point out by making an entire 'Western' category, and then only giving examples of the anglosphere, you are omitting a large number of nuances. You have a very Americanised view of the West. Your point about analytical cultures is also very dependent on where you are in Europe. It is true that the Germanic languages/cultures are more analytical but other European cultures might be quite different from this. The only thing standing is that we all tend to not use super apps, which is also a result of competition laws, and that we like peaceful interfaces.
Hi ThePipton, thank you for your feedback. Which European cultures/geographies would you recommend looking into to identify these differences?
@@phoebeyutbt Any of the ones not included in your East vs West map + Latin/Southern Europe :) Western EU + NA are very different from Latin & Slavic EU -- you just don't hear about it unless you're into cultural studies.
Today being 15th Nov. 2024, I saw your video on how Google fixed India's Street name problem. There was something spectacular about your narration, I couldn't tell, in my quest to find out, I probed your channel for other contents, found this one and I realized something, apart from detailed explanation, you teach as well. The subtle sprinkle of language lessons is also superb!
Excellent work, Phoebe. I was one of your first hundred or so followers. I am happy to see such great content and your channel do so well so quickly. Bravo.
Great presentation! I really like that you try to understand this phenomenon from the analytical vs holistic views, although I feel it has more to do with regulations & social inertia than western/eastern ways of thinking. And as someone who was born and raised in China and lives in the US, I think holistic is a loaded word - without analytics, holistic thinking is basically synonymous with ignorance 😂
In the West, individualism and independence are prioritized, while in the East, family structures play a central role, with parents and children often living together well into adulthood, sharing responsibilities.
Westerners tend to manage different aspects of life independently, while more collective cultures rely on mutual support. This dynamic helps explain why "super apps" are thriving in Latin America, where community life resembles the Eastern model. However, Latin Americans are more cautious with financial apps, preferring to keep their bank accounts separate from other services.
In the end, our technological preferences reflect how our cultures have evolved over time.
Quick point on google maps: I used it extensively living in Tokyo, where it reliably tells you which train car to enter for transfers and other information. Not sure about Korea, but it google maps offers more detail and information on public transport than it does say in a city like San Francisco.
I'm so happy to have discovered your channel and wish you continued growth and success!
Phoebe, please discuss the regulations of each country in designing official websites for government agencies. I would like to see a comparison in the US, Europe, China, Japan, India and Singapore.Thank you
+1
+1
this really inspires me to learn more about designing for other cultures besides my own! i think it would make for a great portfolio project to create a few various "localized" versions of an app while taking your message from this video into consideration.
Love this series so much! Your videos are getting super smooth :) keep up the amazing content, appreciate it
Good video but big correction on your maps chapter. Map providers like Google Maps typically do not own their transit data. Data like bus arrival times, platform numbers and station layout is provided by the governmental transit agencies themselves. And in most of these data APIs, accuracy and availability are very poor in the US. (Speaking as someone who’s had to struggle developing with GTFS a lot.)
Some apps like Transit (based in Montreal) try to crowdsource more accurate arrival times from real-time user analytics, but it’s still inadequate. You’re never making that super precise transfer. Just as Americans and Canadians use transit less, the public data infrastructure for transit is lower quality, too.
Thanks for the video! It's always surprising (and super interesting) to see the cultural differences.
Absolutely loved the psychological analysis here and I'm an instant subscriber
As a developer I have to add that western apps are designed by committee while in other places they might be designed by market use or need
As someone who went to NYC recently, I used Google maps to figure out the transit system and while it was possible, it didn't exactly feel intuitive
Nice video! As an East Asian living in Europe, and I feel like a lot of your descriptions of "the west" only applies to the US (and to some extent Canada)... iMessage is basically a US-only thing for example, and Google Maps is still really good for public transport in Europe, as well as in East Asia like Hong Kong, Taiwan or Japan (not to mention transit-oriented apps like Citymapper which started in London). Google Maps not being a thing in Korea was mainly due to legal restrictions on mapping data imposed by the Korean government, and Google Maps didn't even have an interactive map for Korea until not very long ago.
One crucial point to make a busy UI like Eastern apps is the language.
The 3 examples you have all use some sort of Hanzi, which can display a lot of text in a small space.
For asian countries that using Latin, apps look more western style.
Very interesting video. I like messaging and payments to be separate apps, other features don't matter to me if integrated or not.
I like your videos on this topic. Thanks Phoebe for the good work
In India you can send money from your bank account to other using WhatsApp.
So interesting. I am also a bit tired of everything replaced by screens. Physical interaction still matters. Really like the idea that things can be made in different ways, and that what you know is not all out there.
This one felt a little weak on the subject matter, analysis, and having a cohesive point compared to your other videos
kind of nothing burgeresque
Thank you for your effort and perspective, brillint content!
I'm from Sri Lanka. We don't really fall within either of these western/eastern categories (even though we are an Asian country). I personally detest super apps. My personality aligns more with the western style of analytical thinking. I like compartmentalizing things. Hell, I have separate email addresses and bank accounts solely dedicated for different purposes. So I naturally prefer separate apps doing one thing (or a couple of related things) and doing them well.
However there is a popular super app in my country that has similar features of WeChat. I don't have official stats but it is quite popular in certain demographics but not as widespread as WeChat in China. I guess we kind of exist in the middle. Like my country is literally located in between the western and eastern ones lol.
It's probably because South Asians like Sri Lankans and Indians began using computers and mobile phones in English language. South Asian languages weren't supported during the early days of the Internet. Because of that, even today, many young South Asians don't even change their system language to their native language from the default English language. So South Asians were kind of forced to learn the western UI/UX. This is not the case with young Chinese, Korean, Japanese kids... They always used their own languages in tech.
@@தமிழோன் Good point!
I think this is a brain language thing. Here in brazil we got a thing i feel both americans and asians lack, witch is a VIBE language. Its very hard to explain but people here dont communicate through what the words mean, but what vibe they express... its funny because when contacting americans or asians we need to switch to our "obvious" mode. Being as litteral as possible other wise the person wont get the vibe and end up doing something stupid... lol its hard to explain.
Concordo totalmente. Brazilian here too!
@@outrahistoria2378Thanks for sharing! I’m Chinese and I think perhaps that VIBE language applies to some of the Chinese culture as well. Imo it’s highly contextualized and we often have this “language” used among civil servants working for regional governments.
interessante! When you say vibe are you referring to subtle communication cues?
@@phoebeyutbt its a combo of suttle comunications like tone, context, body language and who knows what else... i feel like this is good for relationships but terrible for business and more direct things (although some areas may benefit). Its called by many the "malemolencia"
Same in Italian.
Very interesting topic but I see 2 mistakes: it seems you identify the west with the USA, by neglecting Europe. Also, we are just fed a certain app style because someone decided to do so, for example many of us would prefere a more detailed maps and in fact there are apps like moovit. Its just thag ggle for some reason doesn't update it. A more important thing that I saw while in china was that there were a lot of advertisement for example in the maps app which would be strange here
We use moovit in Argentina too! I didn’t know it was a thing elsewhere too. Here google maps is pretty decent, but it really lacks on the public transport aspect. Like we only use moovit to look for a specific route we want to do with public transport, and google maps for everything else. You wouldn’t look for a specific store, place on landmark on moovit, you’d probably look for the address on google maps and then use moovit to know what bus, train, metro (or combination of them) you need to do to get there.
The thing with google maps, is that the algorithm sucks. Maybe if you walk for like 5 minutes there’s a bus that takes you directly to wherever you need to go, but google maps will instead suggest you to take a closer bus and then take a different bus or metro line (which, unless you care about walking such short distance, it’s very inconvenient). Also, in moovit you can look up the whole route of every bus and train, while maps doesn’t show that info for some reason although they clearly have it.
Most of Western Europe is heavily influenced by the US in most regards, the more you go to the East (up to the China) the less the influence is.
Top video and bonus points for featuring Naomi Wu who is sadly missed since being shut down on TH-cam. 7/11s were bought out by a Japanese company in Australia. While I have not checked one out since the takeover, they now sell many of the Japanese foods and snacks one finds in Japan's 7/11s. The point of mentioning it is I wonder if the Japanese owned 7/11s now feature a more Asian mindset towards the interior signage and information. BTW interesting top and jewellery 💯
Excellent work, pls keep posting
You’re a bit ahead of your time, Phoebe. And it shows in the comments. Keep going anyways💪love your content
Awesome video. Thanks a lot!
Good comparison foebu❤❤❤ 😍😍 ..
I love your video, very informative. Subscribed.
5:57 except Google Maps has great public transport directions for Budapest, Hungary, it shows you more than enough data to navigate around perfectly. On the other hand apple maps sucks here it says things for driving as „turn right onto M1-M1 highway road route“.
Nice Video bro!!
Interesting video! And in Russian apps, the design mostly falls closer to Western, but sometimes to Eastern.
the reason for super apps in china is due to convenience. imagine your friend sending a quote for a split bill and instead of having to open another app to pay, you can just instantly pay in the same app. or if you see an item you like on social media, instead of having to look for it on a shopping website, you can buy directly from the creator in the same app. same thing applies to maps apps, instead of looking for a certain place in gmaps then having to transfer that information to uber/lyft, you can directly order a taxi to the place you've selected. it also increases convenience for foreigners coming into the country since they only need one app to do everything, as opposed to downloading multiple apps to do different things. i dont know why such convenience isn't available in most western countries 🤷♂
Was waiting for a new video 🎉
Interesting - perhaps that is why my Chinese designed and made HiFi streamer, Eversolo DMP A8 has an interface and app that has everything but hides simplicity in a maze of features. For me, it’s easy to use as I get complexity, however, my wife absolutely hates it as she has to perform 4 actions to play the radio station she wants. Our previous streamer had presets front and centre, allowed the hiding of inputs and autosensed inputs hiding complexity.
I have written to Zidoo, the parent company and they have responded favourably. Their players typically get sold to audiophiles so more often these are intelligent well off users who crave full control. My point to them was, you design the software, build in toggles to reduce complexity and allow presets that allow customisation. A few weeks ago they allowed streaming services not being used to be hidden, a small win for my wife.
This video make me appreciate WeChat more. Appreciate asian app more than google apps
Youre a legend, amazing insights
I love how well you explain such a complex nuanced topic so clearly!🎉
One point I think is important about super-apps is that in Western countries -- and maybe more importantly, the US -- there's a very strong bias against monopolies, and I don't think that's the case in countries like China. As we've seen with multiple lawsuits targeting Google, Apple, and Meta, I don't think it would be acceptable to have the same app/company provide map, payment, messaging, ride-sharing, shopping, and various other services... especially in the same app. I'm not saying Google, for example, does not already provide all those services individually, but if suddenly they would provide it all in the same app you already open every day, that would form a much, much stronger argument for anti-competitive practices, market manipulation, and monopolistic behavior.
This lady is a treasure!!! Please keep her safe❤❤❤
There has to be something with the habit we have to find a good if, and only if, it does one function only. Here in Brazil, we use WhatsApp for convenience because the most part of the population have android phones, we use Spotify over Apple Music for the same reason, we don't care much for ecosystem, privacy (the majority of us) nor for multifunction apps, convenience is a must. As for payments, in the last 4 years, our economy turned upside down ,with the creation by the government, the PIX, a tecnology that allows payment through internet so much simple, as said early, privacy is not a must in Brazil, although we don't like to have our data collected as it's in China, so the PIX even though it is a government way to watch our transactions, the convenience it provides makes it used more than cash nowadays in Brazil. So, when compared to China and to others western countries, convenience thrives as the main reason for using a app, but the similarities ends there, because we use to thrust in app quality if it has only a function and do it well.
Super Interesting analysis, though as a European I strongly have to object that either Gordon Ramsey or the U.S. is representative of western „thinking“ 😀
For context, I don’t mean to insult any Americans, we all know that the U.S. has incredible talent, but given the education system and current voter behaviour we also know that this talent is not equally spread across the nation…
Though you touched on your video when mentioning Google maps, regulation and overall governance is a very, very big factor! In the US there are regulations to "break" big corporations when they get too much power/market share. Therefore a western WeChat could not be possible due to that and also finance regulations and other bits.
Such an interesting topic 👌
This is defo an interesting topic! Thanks for offering your views, Phoebe :) I do have to point out that I feel like you’re confusing “design” and “function” in your videos. (btw I’m speaking as a Korean Software Engineer who grew up in diverse cultures - 6yrs in Africa, 11yrs in Europe, 2yrs in America and 8yrs in Asia)
*Just because East Asian (high-context collective societies) apps tend to be super-apps (that offers many info/functionalities), doesn’t mean they “should” have messy/cluttered designs.* East Asian super apps are not optimized with their designs imo, and should simplify more. For example, finance apps in Korea used to be very messy/cluttered until Toss came along in 2015 and dominated the game - people love it because it has the simplest designs.
I just think most of these Chinese/Korean/Japanese super-apps lack the incentive to innovate their UI/UX because they have so much power and are protected by their governments. They don’t have to compete with other global apps with optimal/simpler designs AND often even better services/capabilities/info. They don’t have to be so obsessed with what the customers really want, or will want, especially with the design.
In a way, customers themselves are also not so familiar/aware of how simpler designs can improve their experience (simply because they haven't seen much). But this is slowly changing, at least in Korea. US apps (with 10x simpler designs) are replacing Korean ones (with complicated designs): Google is slowly beating Naver in search, TH-cam crushed all Korean video platforms, kids use Instagram/Facebook over Kakao for messaging. Whereas Japanese just generally tend to be more conservative with tech innovations -- for example, even their main messaging app is made by Korea’s Naver. And China is just China LOLL they can’t even access US apps without VPN.
Sooo spot-on abt the East Asian mega apps lol. I’m Chinese and totally agree w ur take on Chinese mega apps. One fun fact tho is that some young Chinese (me included) tend to set their app language into English jus becuz it’ll make UI look simpler. For example, I’ve long set my WeChat language as English. I don’t get to have various in-app functions (live-streaming, music, short videos, etc) on this app, but I’m able to focus on the functions that indeed save my life (instant messaging, WeChat pay and WeChat moments, etc).
What a lovely, nuanced breakdown. Thank you - I'll keep this difference in mind.
11:07 "Japan, living in the year 2000 since 1985." (c) Reddit
great channel
great video! very informative.😊
Nice explanation!
This video makes the one about super apps clearer and argumentation is now much stronger
I live in Afghanistan here some app and service don't work so I use VPN sometimes I change my location to Romanian UK Japan and Canada and more but they all look really different special app store and Google services that also shows the difference in culture that effect the internet
this video is gold
Great Video
5:47 this framing is so wrong, Google Maps doesn't work in Korea because they won't allow the goverment a back door to their data and won't give them a map license to opperate. If you talk to any Japanese person they will tell you Google maps works great for public transportation in Japan, a country whos public transportation is on par or better than Koreas. This video is so poorly researched.
I've used Google maps in Japan, it was a lifesaver! So many train changes and hidden stations.
It is great to add detail if you can filter the information, so that you only add useful details. This allows the user to find information without having to click.
But as a western user, I don't trust that the designer is able to filter the information for me, so I automatically assume that the details are useless.
Really interesting though I wish you had gone into more detail about the Japanese pay pay app. you just showed it and didn’t really dive into it or breakdown why it gives reassurance to Japanese users. It was a very surface level answer could you elaborate?
We Arabs love actions & results than emotions & talks , ok in Egypt there is a proverb say " Tow good words better than a newspaper" so we like a few strait direct words to make overall results , the secret is about a few simple comprehensive keywords , so we Arabs don't like distraction from much data in the topic and in the same moment we like to know the whole core of the topic , I know you are confused from that ! , but believe me Arabs very easy to understand them
and their tutorials & topics .
I feel like some of your comparisons between Western and Eastern app design aren't so much to do with the cultural context or what - users want but what the company making these apps wants.
I would *very much prefer* PayPay's UI over Google Pay or PayPal's app. UI design in Western apps and websites often feels like it's hiding the most useful things from me, like they want me to not notice some things I can do, or don't think I'm smart enough to handle more than 3 options at once. I want information density! I don't want to hunt through 3 different menus to find something I need!
I think a lot of it is down to the motivation of the designer - often, it's "retention", "total spend", or "time in app", not "give the user useful tools".
Papypay has a couple of things I'd want to hide - Phone Plans, Investing - but other than that? it looks better on all fronts.
Here in argentina theres applying kind of similar thing with mercado libre (like amazon app), mercado pago (pay app), and now recently they made mercado play (streaming app) similar what is like kakao multiuse apps.
Same in Brazil with Mercado Livre (same company) but they have a lot of competition. Pretty much every tech company is trying to become a bank.
As someone who has to deal with wechat, it is terrible, you can't login on multiple phones/devices on the same time because it logs you out. It takes up 1GB of storage without even being logged in. Holistic vs Analytical comes off a bit shallow because most in east asia get apple devices which are way more holistic compared to android which can hide less stuff and has a wider range of options. I think a super app would have worked here in the US(ignoring gov regulations for a sec) if facebook capitalized on it sooner but we have more competition in general
The video conveniently omits cases outside of US and East Asia. 60% Londoners commute via public transport but still rely on Google maps. Asian cities like Bangkok and Singapore are primarily public transport oriented yet everyone just used google maps.
Because we dont believe everything should be in one place. We value an open market and strongly dislike a monopoly
Next question
Pretty bad comparisson in the Thumbnail. You took totally different screens
TBH, you start with a thesis and you build arguments around it and they barely make sense.
Western apps also want a "holistic" thing - Facebook does a marketplace, chat, tiktoks, restaurant menus, business sites and whatever else (I'm not a FB user).
Google Maps is worse in Poland for public transport because Poland sucks at integrating it so we use also a 3rd party app like Korea (why can't I use KakaoMap in Poland if it's so good for public transport according to you?). But I use Google Maps whenever I'm in Spain, Germany, Netherlands etc because it's amazing and tells me all you listed for the KakaoMap.
So you start with a thesis and then provide sloppy arguments that don't really hold water if you actually use any of that stuff.
I agree with you, however there are other videos on the topic that explain the Eastern super apps in much more detail. The Facebook ecosystem dwarfs in comparison with Chinese super apps. While in the west we have uber, Glovo, TikTok, WhatsApp, PayPal, eBay, google maps, etc (or your local versions) In china they have all of that together inside just one app, and with even more features and services (you can literally make a doctors appointment, a restaurant reservation or get an appointment to get divorced lol).
She kinda explained it but didn’t dive very deep into the details. These super apps are indeed operating systems (just like IOS or Android), these apps have their own “app stores” built in, so users can literally download apps inside the app itself. You could only have that super app installed into your phone and still do the same stuff we do in the west with a dozen different apps.
Making technology a better place in the word should be Key 🔑. Having said that, physical money should be the primary backup, if a digital shutdown and or hack happens in the current digital currency in place. Differences of culture does play a major role when designing an App, but not really, I’m thinking that it comes down to the clients of the designers. See, some designers design some really fancy stuff, but they only want certain individuals to use the fancy stuff and that is when culture comes into play, cos some other designers also may design a real fancy thing, but that designer wants everyone to use his her creation, but why one designer wants everyone to use and enjoy their creation, while the other does not? Now, back in the days technology from the west used to be everywhere and popular, but now the technology from the east is everywhere and dominant world wide and just for that one reason, cos they are sharing the technology worldwide, such as worldwide domination of digital usage, if that makes any sense. The only weakness in the digital technology from the east is that language barrier. The west makes it easy to understand language with the main three languages, English, Spanish, and Chinese, must learn one or the other world wide, while in the East lacks the three language translations which are English, Spanish, and Chinese. Do you agree? Cool informative and discussion video, enjoyed viewing it and I been wanting to download the WeChat App in iPhone, will it work in California? Is there a WeChat standalone phone? Don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty cool right? See you on the next video! 😺💪👩💻📱🥰✨💎
In Philippines, casino and money app is combined, 'super app' cause we're gamblers
Interesting. Ever since I was introduced to Eastern app designs, I noticed they seem better/ more convenient/ less clunky. This video just explained why.
As a designer, we don't speak to users using words. We speak visually through our design. Unfortunately the vocabulary of visual language, especially in mobile apps, is very limited and very basic. It not yet have reach levels of sophistication of written or verbal language. So it's hard to communicate certain functions to users clearly. But that is our reason to exist as designers right?
can you explore and explain the design in Turkiye. It is interesting because it has both of these design styles used. For example super apps are becoming a thing for example "getir" has 9 different functions from food ordering to job haunting to calling a cab etc. But on the other hand we also use imessage and whatsapp or the softwares we use in the work life in corporate etc. is very western.
Could super-apps also be more popular in Asia simply because the tech industry there developed differently? Westerners use different apps for different things because the apps are (or were) made by different companies. Whereas in China, you have tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent that built lots of different tools for different things and integrated them into their own apps much earlier.
I guess this is in part why I am regularly annoyed with apps here in Europe I really prefer a more holistic approach instead of separate apps for everything. Especially for the regular every day stuff. If I order something it is often a toss up between a half dozen delivery companies each with different costs, different delivery times and dates and, of course, each their own app. Same goes for banking or public transport. I would also love to ditch Google Maps.. but it is sadly the only good one here in Europe. The entire thing also just ends up being a giant waste of resources and money.. every one of these apps needs their own development team and bespoke security patches and while it is often sold to us as a more competitive market it rarely actually has this as a result. In the end, for many things, a monopoly is by far the best solution the problem with that in the west is that monopolies, just like everything else, only has one single mandate: Profit above all else. Of course you're going to have problems if you have no accountability towards society.
A lot of these apps are trying to *compete*, not co-operate seamlessly. And a lot of them should have just been websites, not apps, but it's better for their metrics and profit to develop a junky app.
Is this the reason why Samsung's One UI and Other Chinese Android Manufacturer's Android user interfaces looked cluttered, can be difficult to understand sometimes? Maybe that's one of the reasons why people choose Apple's iOS and Google's Pixel UI because it's clean, optimistic, and has premium bold text.
wake up babe, new Phoebe Yu video dropped
you should make a youtube video about "upi" in india. your audience will be shocked, and i'm hoping you too- delightfully.
Give us the right clout, foreigners, not the pretentious "this is a dirty place". we're done. recognise our scientific/technological prowess.
Why would you show a one on one conversation in iMessage vs main chat screen in WeChat? The equivalent chat screen in iMessage (or Messenger or WhatsApp, etc) look very similar. Also Google (and others) could bundle their services into one app but they’d be massive apps. By having individual apps you can pick and choose (helps with coding, updates, not wasting disk space, etc). In China maybe there is less choice for a reason…
ngl, feels bad to know LINE is out of popularity. the original asian chatting app, before whatsapp took over.
India is in asia but we prefer simple apps like google apps etc
I feel super apps concept it not good because giving it give all power and control to one app which is dangerous because our whole data store in one app. Having multiple apps for different purposes can enhance efficiency and focus on specific functions, which is often better than a single super app trying to do everything.
Just landed on your channel, this video is really well written and I liked your way of explaining things. Learned a lot about how culture impacts UX.
why do you only move your left hand and keep your right hand stiff as a board?
Why do you compare the message page to the message list page? I'm guessing because both are very similar in both apps. Why hide this information?
Thank you for making this video. I'm tired of Eastern design being written off as 'outdated', and cultural differences driving design preferences being overlooked or even the idea that culture informs design being seen as a fringe theory.
Really interesting video!
All apps for me must use the American Dollar
The South East Asian that have to dealing with these two cultures in everyday life 😂
The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that it’s not just about the applications themselves, but rather the approach to what operating systems represent. In the West, we use iOS and Android, while in the East, it seems they are striving to create micro-operating systems. And that’s the fundamental difference.
I love these east vs west designs. I always watch them even though i know what most people say about the differences. I always seem to learn something new
good video, but whatsapp would have been a better comparison!
I would say that Facebook is a rare example of a western "mega app". You have the regular facebook stuff, but then also marketplace, gaming, dating, and then, of course, all the stolen features from other apps. It's a bit intimidating, so Im glad my generation barely uses it.
I was going to include messenger, but that's a separate app for whatever reason
Great stuff! Thanks for sharing:)
Have been living in Tokyo for 6 years. Noticed that Japan has slowly been moving away from cash and that the process is maybe accelerating, especially among young generations.
As to product design, when creating new digital products or services in non-traditional industries today, designers aim to prioritize simplicity. However, they approach this with a nuanced understanding of how Japanese users perceive simplicity, balancing it with a sense of reassurance.
Younger generations in Japan frequently use apps and products developed outside the country, which has made the use of global UI language increasingly preferred in new products.
You must know what the The thinking of Arabian person , We are very strait & direct with the point and we say a few words to explain the whole situation like example if I wanna describe very stingy man I will say " this man if his kids & wife will die from disease he will never ever pay for them" , so the best tutorials in you tube is the Arabian tutorials from Egypt & middle east .
And Arabs love actions & results than emotions & talks .
That’s literally the opposite from being direct lol, you just described using analogies and metaphors to explain a very simple point (that a man is stingy). You could simply say “that man is stingy”, but instead you choose to describe a whole hypothetical scenario and how that man would behave in such scenario.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with doing that, we do that in my country too, but i wouldn’t call it straightforward or direct.
@@agme8045 I get you maybe I give wrong example but , we Arabs love actions & results than emotions & talks , ok in Egypt there is a proverb say " Tow good words better than a newspaper" so we like a few strait direct words to make overall results , the secret is about a few simple comprehensive keywords , so we Arabs don't like distraction from much data in the topic and in the same moment we like to know the whole core of the topic , I know you are confused from that ! , but believe me Arabs very easy to understand them
and their tutorials & topics .
India got mix of both or either some apps too simplified and other filled with all the clutter in the world
personally I don't think I am really happy with any one of the two design models. I would appreciate more details in the map like it is with the Korean one. Extra information there is really good. I hate the look of that Japanese payment app. I think it is very silly to put clutter in that when you really need to just focus on whom you are paying and how much. Just saying that I really love and hate some parts of both the design philosophies.
I can't believe she chose iMessage? Like What's App is right there lol Also 45% of people in the US have an Android phone so iMessage is not as common as WeChat in China.
Isn't the US known to have more iOS user than android ?
@@smx75 Yeah - US is 55% iOS, vs about 25% globally.
@@irasponsibly my apologies, I thought it was reversed. My point still stands that What's App is a better comparison than an exclusive native app.
👏👏👏