Double standard or no trust?

Google’s just released a new Chinese input app last week. People are attacking Google for copying existing application. I really don’t know much about the true story. However, it troubles me that most of the major players in China internet market copied well known U.S. or Korean sites to being with their business and no one mention any thing about it. These sites are much more respected in this market than those multinational companies in China. It is true that none of the multinational companies do well in China, at least not in the internet industry. Is it a double standard or trust issue in this market?

User flow

A good UI does not just apply to a web site. It really impacts our everyday life. I am quite troubled by the escalator in our office building. For some reasons, the building manager switches the direction of the escalator randomly. I find myself and others walk against the direction constantly. Just like any good UI, a consistent behavior would be easier to use. You should not feel its existance if it's done right. Of course, I don't expect a building manager understand UI. I just want to rant about. ^^

Hsun, Xuan, 璇, 玄,...huh?

我的名字始终是个令我headache的事，可以一次把我的名字唸对的不到5個人, 包刮我的家人都唸错, 到我五年级我才知道正确的唸法. 介绍我的名字是一件挺累人的事, 无论对方是谁, 少不了来个中文大猜题. 我自己发明了几种介绍方式. 可是没多大用处.

因为我的名字是外公取的. 所以, 我妈不让我换名字. 几次之我就只好打消this idea, 我到了美国命运没有改变. 我以为可以不用再explain我的名字. well I was wrong.....因为我找不到一个适合我的英文名字（I know，我有点picky)...再加上所有ID多是英译中文名, 改文件是很touble的. 也就罢了. 但是最糟的是台式翻译实在是离谱 (外交部的英文有问题). Hsun念起来就像是个印度名字"H"不发音或只发气音, 所以大部分的westerners 会发 sun or ha-sun. 在'我不断的校正之下, 我可怜的同事及friends, 只好被force to remember and pronounce it correctly.

自我搬到China, 我又发现了新的现象, 我的中文很像China的名字, 两个字. 但是, 我的英文名带来许多人的"不了"表情. Oh well, I guess I am stuck with it forever now. People can pronounce "绚丽", but people have problem pronounce "绚"with other words….interesting, isn't it? ^ ^

很有成就感, 打字有进步 (on and off 打了好几天---hehe)

Design Matters show

You can access Debbie Millman's Design Matters show from here.

75 or 95?

In my round table discussion at the UPA 2006 conference, the number “75” came up when we were discussing “How to balance the market needs and user needs?” with a group of western and local design professionals. "75" was brought up by one of local designers from a well known site. He said that their company release a product when it is about 75% done and modify it after it is released. This theory got people interested and heavily debated about it. One guy from Baidu told an interesting story about his grand father and the story reflected the opposite opinion of the “75” theory. (This story reminded me that Chinese are smart, strategic and know how to survive. I will tell the story next time.)

Personally, I believe a product should focus on the key values for users. “Experiences” means more than “features”. I agree with Baidu Guo Yu's 先减后加 approch. Build what matters to user first and build the additional features around it later. It provides good balance to obtain users and provide quality services.

Clearly, China is a fast growing and rapidly changing market. In order to acquire users and complete with others, most of the local companies launch product quickly (75%) and fix it later. This strategy works on some of the well known products like QQ. However, in my opinion, this strategy will work only when the company is still small. It will hurt product and damage brand reputation if you are a much mature company. Most of the users have higher expectation on a well known brand. We all know that it takes a village to build a brand.

After working for international company in China for about a year, I understand the 75% does not just mean 75% of the product. It means the system needs to provide the flexibilities for quick response to the users, market and nimble process. This is one of the reasons why international internet companies are suffering in this market.

Bags

I was staring at this wall for really long time....so beautiful!
(Fukuoka, Japan)

Seoul

I spent 4 days in Seoul last week for meetings. Seoul surprised me with many things. It is such a clean and organized city. Golden Ginkgo tree leaves brighten the streets, very delightful. Other then stuck in the meeting room most of the time, here is my impression of the city.

- Men wear nice looking pastel color neck-tie (looks like woman shops for men in Korea)
- The woman’s shoe session in the department store hire young good-looking guys (sex sell - sales strategy)
- Corp worker brushes teeth after meal
- Seoul has very intuitive street, subway and directional signs
- White collar female workers like to place their handbag on the desk; even at the immigration (handbag and accessory might be one of the status symbols)
- BBQ and drinking is part of daily life (fun!! But it is tough if you are a vegetarian)
- Lots of cute coffee shops (I had too much coffee :P)

UPA 2006 - Hang Zhou

今年的User Friendly Conference 给我很多的impact. Many conversation and discussions were around the culture differences. 因为长时间在美国公司工作及生活，我深深的体会到中西文化差異. 自来到中囯，我发现很多人 (包括designers) made lots assumptions on Chinese users. 我非常疑惑, 当People said to me that Chinese people love busy and flashy design because all the major portals in China have long pages and filled with tons of links and blinking banner ads. Chinese users love red, yellow and gold color. Really?

This topic was brought up again in the User Friendly 2006 Conference in 杭州. There were heated debates around this topic. I think China market presents an interesting phenomenon. Everything contains many different layers of meanings that reflect culture and time. It does not have one simple answer. After all, 5,000 years of history and culture takes time to digest.

哎, 生疏的中文拼音, 一段句子打好久...:P