[Sigia-l] "Messy" design, Indian style

[Sunandini Basu]

It's true that Indians find clean, uncluttered spaces / design intimidating
and "western".

It's mainly because they live amidst a lot of "visual clutter" - bright
colors, loud hoardings hogging each inch of free space, garish hand-painted
auto-rickshaws, buses, trams, you name it. Add to it the cacophonic noise
that is impossible to separate from the surroundings. I guess Biyani was
trying to re-create a sense of that more familiar space; but as in India,
nothing is done to the T, & he didn't think it through.

Another interesting point to note is that Indians prefer Orkut to Facebook.
I did some studies with users aged 15 - 25 this year; and even though all of
them have issues about Orkut's lack of privacy they will keep using it as
it's "easy" and "comfortable" while Facebook was perceived as "intimidating"
"complex" and "too clean".

Cheers
Soo



"The details are not the details. They make the design' - Charles Eames
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Sunandini Basu
Interaction Designer
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