User-Centered Design - Kelikuru.com

According to China-based consulting group iResearch, SNS (Social Networking Sites) in China recorded 72 million internet users per day in July, compared to 25 million per day in February.

The consulting group noted that the combined market value of networking services in China shot up to 500 million yuan in 2007, of which social networking services accounted for 280 million yuan. It projected the SNS market in China will be taking off very soon.

The high flyer  Kaixin001.com remained robust in the market as it blended easy-to-play games with SNS model. Kaixin was found by Mr Cheng Binghao, a former executive at Sina.com. Other emerging SNS sites include foreign players: Facebook, Xing, MySpace, Cyworld; local players: China Mobile,  51.com, Xiaonei.com etc.

Related Articles:

• Does Kaixin make you happy?
• MySpace targets for User Friendliness
• Titantic crash - Baidu Hi and Alibaba Ali Wan Wan(阿里旺旺)
• Xiaonei.com vs Facebook.com

written by TG \\ tags: China Internet, internet, SNS, Social Networking, social networking site, Web 2.0

Social Networking sites (SNS) continue to grow strong in China despite the fact that there’s no solid business model. Following Xiaonei.com,  which we have discussed earlier, TG found another fast growing SNS Kaixin001.com, literally means ”happy” 開心網 in Chinese.

The SNS is now on beta and it does not take any new registration. Instead it starts using viral marketing approach by encouraging existing members to send invitation to their friends. It was reported that the site has experienced exponent growth in the last three months.

What makes it so attractive to the users? TG learnt that the game applications in the site are very well designed. Many Chinese users got addicted to it.

Forbes Magazine reported that China has surpassed the States and become the largest internet users country in the world. Yet unlike Americans, who look for useful information, Chinese users tend to use the Internet for chatting and playing games.

Internet Users In China

Source: China Internet Network Information Center, CNNIC.net

Related Articles:

• MySpace targets for User Friendliness
• Titantic crash - Baidu Hi and Alibaba Ali Wan Wan(阿里旺旺)
• Xiaonei.com vs Facebook.com

written by TG \\ tags: China Internet, internet, Social Networking, social networking site, Web 2.0

Social Networking site MySpace.com reveals its new homepage and navigation tools today with the collaboration of usability expert, Adaptive Path and visual design expert, Sequence.

Designing a new home page and navigation scheme is one of the most challenging work in the design and UX community even though there are many ways to do it. This is particularly true if we have to do it for a site with millions of users from different part of the world. It takes glut to make a design decision since a site revamp as such always has titanic impact on page views and conversion rate. TG was wondering if MySpace has done any pilot test before its launch.

Adaptive Path said they have conducted an 8 week cross-country anthropological study of MySpace users and the results was transformed into a set of personas. TG is very interested to see the personas profile!!

The site revamp was kept under wraps for almost 10 months - they started it in September, 2007. MySpace said the new release covers the following area with a view to improving its user experience:

• homepage
• navigation tools
• profile editor
• search features
• MySpace TV player 

In my first glance, TG enjoys its succinct navigation bar, which enhances its scalability by adding “More” at the end of the scheme bar. Clicking on it will take users to an index page where they can have more options.

Search box is also very appealing with a selection of choices in the drop-down. Visual design house Sequence has played a major part in it. It also makes use of the tab navigation in the search result page.

As a new user to MySpace, TG finds the tour for new users particularly enjoyable.

written by TG \\ tags: Adapative Path, MySpace, navigation, Search, social networking site, User Experience Design

Baidu unleashed its IM tool on June 5, posing a challenge to Alibaba group and Taoboa.com in consumer-to-consumer (C2C) market. The threat may not be as imminent as it seems to be, but Baidu’s decisive move towards the mainland’s online users should not be overlooked by Alibaba.

The challenge remains to be seen since the C2C marketplace is till towered over by Taoboa.com (81.5%) for the first half of 2008, according to China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) latest release of online shopping statistics.

Dangdang.com comes into the second place with 16.6% market share, Amazon China subsidiary Joyo, 14.6%, Tom Online and eBay’s Eachnet, 8.4%, Tencent’s Paipai.com 7.2%.

Taoboa.com currently has an IM tool - Ali Wan Wan to share with Alibaba group.

Baidu, which now dominates the Chinese search landscape with a 60 percent market share, served 3.3 billion searches in the global arena. It’s estimated that there are over 510 million users in Asia. But more to the point here, China has become the fastest growing internet country with the largest internet users base.

Baidu IM tool — Baidu Hi has recorded 200,000 downloads ever sincee it released its IM tool. In the meantime, Alibaba group should not under estimate Hong Kong-listed Tencent (007.HK), which is posied to be one of the few major competitor due to its exponent growth in China consumer market.

written by Aliuser \\ tags: Alibaba, China Internet, Search, Social Networking, Taobao

TG just came back from a trip and has a chance to interact with some of our clients to talk about their wish lists in using our web sites.

Most feedback came from people representing the client side who want to know our website terminology in plain language. Certainly it’s not a stand-alone coincident. In the old days, TG always regarded our Math’s teacher in school as an alien, who spoke jargons and formulas in classes. Would he quote examples from commonplace or everyday objects?

To capture or activate new users always presents a challenge. Many of our users are senior citizens. They know little about internet, not to mention how to use the tools in the web site to complete a task. It’s the first hurdle we need to remove, making the tools and devices in the website simple and easy to understand.

Prior to this post, TG has seen a very good presentation in explaining web project management and has written a post in other blog. It may be the right time to do another search and see what else is available in the market we can leverage on. 

The search result of Common Craft brings us insight. The company is specialized in making video, using video as an instruction tool to show users what social networking,  social bookmarking, RSS, and . TG is fond of its paperworks video in particular.

written by TG \\ tags: Usability, User Experience Design, Video Media, Web 2.0

Ever since the world is growing to be flat as described by Thomas L. Friedman, TG is under the impression that China is catching up with Japan to become the world’s number one “copy cat”. 

Xiaonei.com  (校内网), which looks 90 percent similar to Facebook.com has become China’s first and foremost popular social networking site among university students in China. Currently, it enrols 5 million registered users and has 8.8 milllion active users. The site was founded in December by Quingha University graduates. It’s now owned by Oak Pacific Interactive, of which Japan’s Softbank bought 14 percent stake by the end of April, 2008.

 Born to be a twin brother of Facebook, Xiaonei.com  (校内网) is a fully-fledged site with functions focusing on blogging, photo album, online chat, community and video sharing etc.

written by TG \\ tags: Facebook, internet, social networking site, Web 2.0