it depends on where you grew up
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole comparing two shopping apps I use, AliExpress and Amazon, because they sell the same kinds of things to the same kinds of people and yet they feel completely different to use. The more I looked, the more I realised the differences are not really about one being better than the other. A lot of it comes down to who the app was designed for and what those people expect a good app to look like.
The short version is that western audiences tend to lean towards aesthetics first, function second, while a lot of the apps coming out of places like China and Japan put function first and are happy to look busy if it means everything is right there. Neither is wrong. They are just designed for different expectations.
first impressions
The very first thing each app does tells you a lot. AliExpress opens with a full screen ad that gets in your way before you have done anything. Amazon has sponsored posts too, but they sit inside the app rather than blocking it. Already you can feel the difference in priorities. One is fine interrupting you, the other really does not want to add friction.
The home screens carry that on. AliExpress is dense, with a top bar full of icons, a constantly updating deals bar, sections of deals, notifications, and eye catching buttons that move. Amazon shows you less at a glance. The search bar is the most prominent thing, sponsored posts are larger but fewer and nicer looking, and there is more focus on continuing where you left off than on throwing random deals at you. No flashing, no eye catching buttons.
search and listings
Search is where the two really split. AliExpress uses a grid layout that packs in more info per screen, leans on colour for emphasis (red for savings, blue for brand certified, bold prices), puts a small ad box in the corner of images, and gives filter chips actual images instead of just text. The posts have backgrounds, the images are square, there is text right on the images, and you can easily see how many of something has sold.
Amazon does almost the opposite. It uses a list layout, colours are rare (orange for stars, blue for Prime, the occasional red for a sale), titles are longer and upfront, prices are not bold, delivery times are stated, and there are lots of filters available right away. The backgrounds are plain white, images are clean rectangles with no text on them.
Open an actual product and the same pattern holds. AliExpress starts with a photo or video, cuts off a long title, throws stats all over the place, makes reviews with photos easy to find, has a Q and A section, lists similar items and stores, and hides item options and prices until you tap into them. It also leans hard on scarcity, temporary discounts with end dates, limited time countdowns, that kind of thing. Amazon puts the seller and the stars up top, shows upfront pricing, states shipping date and address and time clearly, gives you a big add to cart, and saves the reviews for near the end with a summary first. Everything about it is trying to reduce friction so you do not overthink the purchase.
what the differences actually mean
Once you line them up, a few themes fall out.
Amazon is built to reduce friction during buying. Do not think, just buy, easier impulse purchase. Its listings are uniform and similar looking with plain backgrounds, it uses colour sparingly, and it puts the data people care about most upfront so you can decide fast.
AliExpress is the opposite. It is more info dense, more cluttered, and it uses scarcity tactics daily, the only-one-left timers and countdowns, where Amazon only really does that during sales. It makes a lot more information easily accessible, which means you spend more time reading a listing, and it hides less behind brand recognition because it cannot rely on it the way Amazon can.
That last point matters. AliExpress shows you everything, the reviews, the photos, the Q and A, the seller ratings, all upfront, because it is trying to win your trust in the moment. Amazon does not have to work as hard for that trust because it already has brand recognition and Prime.
the culture underneath it
The part I found most interesting is that a lot of this maps onto cultural differences, not just design taste.
Cultures that are more uncertainty avoidant, and China and Japan score high here, tend to want lots of information upfront to feel confident in a decision. That shows up as denser layouts, visible specs, and scarcity marketing. Places that are more comfortable with uncertainty, like the US and Canada, are okay making a choice on less information, which leans towards cleaner UI with less on screen. Think less, buy more.
There is also an individualism versus collectivism thread. Amazon does show how many people bought something, but subtly. AliExpress puts reviews, photos, Q and A, and seller ratings front and centre because crowd opinion carries more weight in a more collectivist context, so it is worth spending screen space on showing it.
And then there is something I had genuinely never thought about, which is the writing system. Chinese and Japanese can pack a lot more meaning into a small space than English can. So a layout that looks comfortably dense in those languages looks cluttered and crowded in English, because Latin script needs more whitespace to breathe. Some of what reads as “messy” to me might just be a layout that was tuned for a script that fits more in.
A couple of other things worth noting. Asian apps and sites tend to gamify the experience more. And colour carries cultural meaning, red being lucky for example, so it gets used far more freely than a western app would dare.
the things that work everywhere
For all those differences, we are all still human, and some things look and feel good no matter where you grew up. These are the principles I keep coming back to.
Visual hierarchy is arranging elements so people instantly understand what is most important. Done well, someone can scan a screen, find what they need, and act without friction. The tools for it are the boring but powerful ones: font size, colour, contrast, alignment, repetition, proximity, whitespace, and style. But to use them well you have to actually know your user. Are they tech savvy? Are they opening your app while waiting in line? Do they need to do things quickly? A little hierarchy goes a long way, and it ties directly into the next one.
Progressive disclosure is showing only the essential stuff at first and revealing the advanced options later. It reduces cognitive load and lets new users focus on the core actions instead of drowning. You do it with expandable sections, show more buttons, dropdowns, multi step forms. The catch is you can go too far and hide things people actually need, so it is a balance, not a rule.
Gestalt principles are not really a UI theory, they are psychology, describing how our brains group visual elements. Things that are close together read as a group (proximity). Things that look alike read as related (similarity). The brain fills in missing pieces (closure) and follows smooth continuous lines (continuity). You are not inventing these, you are working with how people already see.
Touch targets are the screen areas that respond to input, the buttons, icons, and links, and the spacing between them. Get them too small or too close and people miss, which on mobile is the difference between an app that feels good and one that feels fiddly.
Feedback is confirming that something happened. A green check when you save, a vibration, a sound. Without it people are left wondering if their tap even registered.
Recognition over recall is the idea that people should not have to memorise how to use your interface. It reduces cognitive load and it is a big reason so many apps look similar to each other, because those patterns have been proven to be intuitive across platforms. Familiar is not lazy. Familiar is kind.
what I took away from it
Comparing two apps that do the same job ended up teaching me more than reading any single guideline did. The surface stuff, the density, the colour, the scarcity timers, is shaped by who the app is for and where they are. But underneath that, the principles that make something feel good to use are surprisingly universal. People everywhere want to find what they need, understand what will happen when they tap, and trust that the thing they are about to do is the thing that happens.
So when I design now I try to hold both ideas at once. Respect the universal principles, because they are universal for a reason, but stay aware that “good” is partly a local thing, and the people using my app might not see a screen the same way I do.