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Silk (virtual) Routes

In the 14^th century a Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, undertook a caravan trip across the Mongolian Empire. His adventures have been read for centuries following and other adventurers, who were inspired by his descriptions of Asian prosperity, explored the region themselves. Both before and after Polo’s travels, caravans have covered the Silk Road connecting the Middle East with Europe, and people around the world are still retracing this route as their forefathers did in the past - albeit using different tools: in today’s digital age, backpacks, moleskin and sleeping bags are considered archeological finds, with modern technology providing a different means of discovery.

Nowadays, it is enough having the right URL to discover sounds, colours and tastes of mainland China. Accessing chinasmack.com, virtual tourists will have the opportunity to taste Hangzhou’s delicacies such as fried insects, scorpions and spiders, or attend the preparation of “goodwill hostesses” in Guangzhou, who have begun their military training in order to prepare for the opening and closing ceremonies of the multi-sport event - Asiad. Tourists can also go back to the past, visiting the Forbidden City (beyondspaceandtime.org) or go sightseeing across Qianmen street in Beijing, meeting tour guides, storytellers and enjoying the trip on streetcars (qianmenyou.com).

Nevertheless the “destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things (H. Miller)” and it might be interesting exploring the Sino-culture digitally: observing the differences in designing websites for Chinese users, where cultural elements are manifested in many ways; from the big family photos used as background for the launch of a new sedan model, to Taobao.com’ s choice of using orange as its main colour, which according to the Feng Shui represents the Yang associated with fire, the sun, and therefore masculinity. In fact, beyond content itself, we are already seeing how web architects are using the Internet to create design and functionality based on a user experience inherently effected and influenced by culture. Chinese netizens use the Internet differently because of their cultural upbringing, experiences, values and overall way of life; this is something that Chinese websites have naturally catered to; yet as the Internet develops, specialists in User Experience are busily analyzing Internet architecture and local user behvaiour, attempting to design new, innovative ways to use the web: the end goal being to ironically synthesize intuitive web browsing for a local Chinese market.

All the Chinese values detected by the famous sociologist, Hofstede, long term orientation, collectivism, masculinity and high power distance are mirrored in images, colours and fonts accurately selected by web designers and marketers to attract the attention of visitors and to improve the web experience. Smashingmagazine.com has interviewed well-known Sino-designers (Yu Guo, Whitecrow Zhu, Junchen Wu, Lytous Zhou, Johon Woo and Rex Song) to understand better the current trends in web designing. Cultural elements, user-experience, rationality and visual design have to all be considered in order to perceive and comprehend the present and future development of the industry. Today’s industry is already highly complex, with digital savvy designers building a web of digital media interactions - a world of full of images and text interfaces -, developing Flash animations, focusing on entertainment, and respecting the meaning of colour and other traditional aesthetics.

Even if in the past Chinese designers adopted (or copied) the same web design styles of neighbouring countries, and now they are still found lacking in information architecture because of limited research and development budgets, they are improving in terms of techniques and knowledge (Junchen Wu and Rex Song-Samshingmagazine). They are able to develop “play-ish, SNS-ish and visually attractive” websites that meet Chinese users’ preferences and allow “foreigner-netizens” to discover a little more about Chinese culture, both past and present.