[katana]

I was recently on a business trip to Southeast Asia and noticed that almost everyone was using their phones for things I usually do on my PC, like complex spreadsheets and video editing. It made me realize how much our local habits—like my preference for a big monitor—might be slowing down the way we think about tech. Do you guys think that the way different cultures use their gadgets actually forces tech companies to change how they build their software?

[toxatyt]

It definitely does. I remember talking to a friend who moved from Mumbai, and she was shocked at how “behind” our mobile banking apps felt compared to what she used back home. Because so many people there skipped the whole desktop era, companies had to make their mobile interfaces incredibly robust just to survive the competition. I actually saw a great breakdown of this on https://economicweeklynews.org/why-indias-phone-first-entertainment-culture-keeps-raising-the-standard-for-apps/ and it really opened my eyes to how a “mobile-first” mindset changes everything from speed to layout. It’s a good tip to try out some of those international versions of apps if you can; they often have features that make our versions feel like they’re from ten years ago.

[zazajoj]

The way public spaces are designed seems to have a huge impact on how much people rely on their mobile devices throughout the day. In cities with massive transit systems, you see thousands of people standing on platforms or sitting in train cars, all completely focused on their handheld screens to pass the time. It has reached a point where the digital environment has become a sort of secondary architecture that people inhabit while they move through the physical world, creating a very specific kind of urban atmosphere.

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