Conducting research on Chinese and Western municipal websites: revealing shared ground, while embracing the unique beauty of both cultures

The internet transcends national borders. Nevertheless, cultural differences are reflected in the way different countries and cultures design municipal websites. Comparative research offers ample opportunity to better understand these differences and why they exist, and search for opportunities to come to universal design principles. Yaxing Li took it upon himself to dive into research on this subject, comparing Chinese and Western municipal websites, for which he successfully obtained his PhD degree in 2026 from the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

Chinese Yaxing isn’t a stranger to the User Needs First community. He has been an active member for several years and contributed to the User Needs First International Conference in 2025. The recent PhD graduate followed studies in user experience, communications and culture, and has a strong passion to making an impact in public service; to make life easier for citizens and entrepreneurs.

His first step towards making this impact, was his PhD research on how cultural differences affect municipal website designs across continents, specifically Western countries versus China. In his thesis, Yaxing focused on three research questions:

1. To what extent and how do Chinese and Western municipal websites differ in terms of content, visual, and navigation design?
2. Which types of content on municipal websites do Chinese and Western citizens prioritize?
3. To what extent do culturally adapted visual and navigational design characteristics influence a website’s usability and UX for Chinese and Western citizens?

We’ll share some key findings in this article, but we highly recommend reading the entire thesis for a complete impression of Yaxing’s work. Read the full thesis here. Or check the info page of Yaxing’s thesis.

Definitions

Before we dive into some of Yaxing’s findings, let’s first define the scope of Yaxing’s work. Western countries can mean a number of things. For Yaxing’s research specifically, he defines Western countries similarly to Samuel Huntington, best known for his thesis: ‘The Clash of Civilizations’, in which he gives a comprehensive definition of Western and Chinese civilization.

The so-called Western world in Huntington’s work, includes, among others, the US and Canada, Australia and most of Europe. Yaxing used this view of the world as a starting point, heavily emphasizing the US, UK and Australia in his comparative research with China because of their similarities in for instance government structure and language. China being the Sinosphere in Huntington’s work.

Yaxing acknowledges that differences within European countries, despite them being part of the ‘same world’, also influence municipal website design across countries and regions, and though there are many similarities in this so-called Western world, he realizes it’s not necessarily ‘the holy grail’ for comparisons. He says: “I acknowledge the nuances between all these countries included in the Western world. Similarly, you could also make the case that within a massive country like China, regional differences should also be taken into account. But while there are nuances to each country within the Western world, they are often similar as well, especially compared to China, with whom differences are sometimes enormous.”

Differences in visual design, navigation, and content preference

Visual design

A lot of the cultural differences are perceptually noticeable in what municipal websites look like in each country. Overall, Chinese municipal websites are more visually complex (dense, dynamic, disorganized) and colourful (more brighter and saturated colours) than their Western counterparts.

Yaxing shares an example: “Chinese websites are often red, due to our national flag and political associations.” However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a choice that’s backed by its users. “I found that Chinese audiences don’t necessarily like the heavy use of red on municipal websites. It has also never been tested by the government what visual design users favour.”

The color white is used more often in the Western world, possibly for more whitespaces. Thus, the colour itself is different across worlds, but the bigger difference is the decision-making-process to come to a certain design. “In China, there’s no vacancies or roles for user experience (UX) research, testing or citizen participation, whereas in Western worlds, there’s positions in those fields in abundance.” Relating to the matter, from the Chinese audiences Yaxing tested, he notices they actually like the western visual designs.

Navigation

But there’s also a lot the Western world can learn from Chinese websites. While western visual designs are often preferred, navigation-wise the Chinese get a lot of things right. “Western websites often pursue minimalism. They strive for a limited menu on a surface level, with fewer and fewer options as time has passed. All with the idea of creating ‘efficient’ websites”, which matches with Victor Zuydweg’s blog (Dutch) on the Western world’s tendency to operate government as a business, rather than an entity focused on protecting public values and being user-centric; the new public management philosophy.

Chinese websites are a lot busier, which, contrary to common belief in Western worlds, actually works better. “The minimalistic approach in the Western world actually creates confusion for users. They need more clicks to get to the item they’re looking for, and they can’t always figure out how to get there on a website. Users get lost when a menu is too simple. Extreme minimalism harms usability. To a certain extent, a busy website is actually ok if the balance with the visual design is right. In essence, a website should be busy, but organized. Simpler doesn’t mean better.” In this case, less isn’t more. What’s worse, is that in certain western societies, due to decentralization of governments, there’s also cross-linking between many, many websites, confusing users even more.

Basically, in terms of visual design and navigation, users across the board – Chinese and Western – think a hybrid between Western visual design and Chinese navigation is the ideal setup.

Content preference

What content users look for on municipal websites differs between Chinese and Western audiences. In Western cultures, users look for services. Content preferences are more diverse among Chinese citizens. “Engagement and transparency are also important. For instance, they want to voice their opinions on policies and decisions through websites. Generally, that’s different from the Western world.”

Reasons underlying these differences in content preferences for instance have to do with the political system. “In Western societies, users voice their opinions through elections or talk about political candidates on social media. Chinese people voice their opinions on policies through municipal websites. You can get in touch with a mayor through the website and the government can respond. The social media landscape in China is also very different from the Western landscape, as is the political setup.”

It’s hard to say what approach should be the standard, but it’s something in the middle. “The problem with the Western social media landscape is that it invites too many opinions from people who aren’t properly informed about societal matters. This stimulates debates based on inaccurate premises, resulting in, perhaps, being influenced by misinformation. In addition, discussions on social platforms often aren’t civil. But the other end of the spectrum also isn’t ideal.” Therefore, it is vital to be transparent in public affairs and keep citizens informed and engaged in decision-making process, particularly at a local level. Initiatives like Talk London, a platform initiated by the London government to engage citizens in policymaking, seems to be a good example of a solution at the intersection of both worlds.  

Trust in government

Discussions about policies also turn ugly when trust in government is low. In several Western countries, trust in government is at a low point. This stimulates further spread of misinformation and scepticism about the government’s intentions. In China, trust in the government is high. “As a result, Chinese citizens don’t have much an issue with sharing data or have elaborate discussions about privacy issues, to name an example. The government can have their data to optimize Chinese society. Sometimes you need data to govern.” For Yaxing, it circles back to the focus of governments, that of being efficient and productive, like a business, or that of doing what’s best for society and its citizens, and how that focus reflects on people’s opinions about governments.

Take aways from comparative research between international governments

For Yaxing, having lived in both China and the Western world – the Netherlands specifically – and including both in his research, his main take away is this: “Living and conducting research across two cultures can sometimes feel like stepping onto two isolated islands, but my set of mutual learning helps reveal shared ground and the unique beauty of both sides.”

He stresses the need for a cross-cultural communication perspective: “Don’t see other countries as inherently and invariably different. We should look at the similarities. We need to be more open-minded.” And for municipal websites specifically, Yaxing states that we can use shared usability principles to optimize municipal websites worldwide. “People are more adaptable than we assumed. Uniform design guidelines are an excellent starting point. But learn how to implement them in a local context by involving your users. More often than not, users are situated in different socioeconomic contexts — and their needs always come from their specific situations. Meet those needs, especially when it comes to content, and they will be satisfied.”