Travelling to China was the starting point for my dissertation. From the moment I began using everyday apps and digital services, it became clear that design culture there operates very differently from what I was used to in the West. Interfaces felt denser, more layered, and deeply embedded into daily routines. Rather than aiming for minimalism or restraint, many Chinese platforms prioritised functionality, speed, and constant interaction.
In Western design, simplicity is often treated as the gold standard. In contrast, many Chinese apps embrace complexity without apology. Features that might be split across multiple apps in the West are often combined into a single ecosystem. This challenged my assumptions about usability and made me question whether Western design principles truly serve all users, or if they reflect a narrow cultural perspective.
One of the most striking differences was how digital products in China are tightly interwoven with social and cultural behaviours. Apps did not feel like isolated tools but extensions of social life, commerce, and identity. This made me reflect on how Western digital experiences often feel individualistic and screen-focused, with limited emotional or physical connection.
While technology in China felt omnipresent, it also highlighted something missing back home: meaningful physical interaction. Western apps, especially those dealing with memory, storytelling, or emotion, tend to live entirely on flat screens. My exposure to different cultural approaches made me more aware of how disconnected digital storytelling can feel without a tangible, physical element.
These experiences led me to question how digital systems could feel more grounded, emotional, and human. I began exploring how physical artefacts, memory, and storytelling might be combined with digital media to create richer experiences. This thinking became the foundation of my dissertation, which investigates how physical interaction can transform storytelling from something passive into something felt and shared.
Travelling to China did not give me answers, but it gave me better questions. By stepping outside Western design norms, I was able to critically reflect on how culture shapes technology, and how design can either distance us from meaning or bring us closer to it. This project is my attempt to bridge that gap by reintroducing tactility, memory, and emotional presence into digital storytelling.