Website Design Trends in China 2020 That You Should Know

Website Design Trends in China 2020: As the eCommerce industry grows, website design trends also develop. For homegrown brands and platforms, there’s always room for improvements on user experience given that most netizens use mobile devices.

If you have visited a Chinese eCommerce site like Taobao and a full-fledged overseas online store, you have probably noticed the tremendous differences between the two in the design and layout. That’s because localization plays a major role in attracting new customers.

Beyond Chinese translation services, you also must consider the layout and overall structure of the site will also help you better understand consumer behavior.

In this blog post, we will walk you through these website design trends in China as your reference.

Why Chinese websites are designed that way

Most of the Chinese websites are full of characters and links on the pages. These are not outdated designs, but there’s a purpose why they stay that way.

Most western websites have clean, minimalist designs, whereas the Chinese counterparts have all these links to provide a better search experience for people.

For English websites, it’s easy to type in keywords with alphanumeric characters on the search bar. Thus, a minimalist design will suffice as long as the search icon is prominent. However, for Chinese websites, people have to type in characters, which is a nuisance.

To solve this, web designers put all the content and links as much as they can on a single page for easy clicks on the users’ side.

That’s not all. For convenience, most Chinese users would opt for voice search features in their mobile devices. More on this later.

Website Design Trends in China 2020: what are the website design trends you should know

If you plan to launch a localized version of your website or online store, be mindful of these trends. Your ultimate goal is to offer them relevant content that solves their problems.

Minimalist design

You already know the general rule when it comes to the pages. More links and content means better user experience. But these days, some brands are leaning toward a clean, minimalist layout but also pairing it with powerful images on the homepage.

For instance, Lenovo is just one of the few brands that use the minimalist design on its homepage, the same as Apple, Oppo, and luxury brands, Burberry to name a few.

Mobile-friendly and responsive designs

Mobile users in China reached 1.16 billion in April 2020, according to China Internet Watch. Having a responsive design is not an option these days, but a priority. Given that most people spend their time on mobile devices, brands should not risk losing the opportunity to engage with them.

H5 pages

WeChat H5 pages are valuable assets when it comes to promotions and ad campaigns. It refers to a mobile website that developers can connect to the WeChat profile for dynamic campaigns.

However, one of the requirements is that you should have an official WeChat account to maximize H5 pages’ features. Not only do you provide a better user experience (that enables Shake features for example), but you also can launch targeted marketing strategies.

Voice search features

Most people in China would use voice search to discover content without typing on the keyboard. Voice search is one of the most popular ways to search online, given that the Chinese characters have nearly 80,000 characters.

Not all people have typing prowess as fast as a lion, so they would rather speak out loud and thus simplify the search activity throughout the website.

Video clips on homepage

Videos are the most powerful tools to connect with people — whether to tell a story, educate, or entertain them. Most users don’t have the leisure to read all the texts, especially if they’re using mobile devices.

You don’t have to upload a long video on your homepage. A short clip on a loop can do wonders for your website.

With a well-thought video translation strategy, there’s a higher probability of increasing visitors and engagement.

Gradients on branding and design

Gradients aren’t new concepts in design. However, it’s becoming popular as designers play around with them, adding visual impact against a minimalist design.

Gradients are often seen on illustrations, call-to-action-buttons, and menu navigation to emphasize the elements.

Final thoughts

The differences between western and Chinese website designs doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. The differences show that localization is an integral part of global expansion that applies to digital assets such as websites and social media accounts.

At the end of the day, you still have to do your research and also test the layouts and designs. If you feel stuck, you can always ask for help from the LIMPID team to get you on the right footing in China’s internet.