EDITOR Fred Sampson [e-mail]

surprised to find pieces typically unavailable in other publications—that is, by Chinese designers. But content primarily benefits Chinese readers. Virtual China ( http://virtual-china.org) is a related blog that attempts to dissect Chinese digital culture for Western readers in a non-journal format. By soliciting more Asian authors for articles UIGarden’s value would enhance greatly. Because of the easy knowledge transfer and points raised for discussion in user comments, a good place to start would be case studies.

The editors of uiGarden acknowledge that as the field of user-experience design changes, so too will the site. As uiGarden grows, Li says, “we plan to have more original content, that is, articles not published elsewhere, and more articles from Chinese authors. We also plan to improve our categories and to have special columns on popular topics.” uiGarden might be the only site where people can find a reasonably large collection of Chinese translations of relevant articles from English. This makes uiGarden popular among Chinese usability practitioners. The translation seems of good quality, and in most cases, even the subtle, deep meaning of the article seems to translate well. However, just as with any translations, whether this kind of meaning transfers well, the holistic knowledge transfer depends on the reader’s knowledge and experience level on the topics. What the readers really get from the articles, especially those deeper meanings, varies from reader to reader.

Western readers hoping to gain some understanding of their counterparts across the globe might be disappointed with uiGarden, but not because of the content itself. Chinese and English versions of the articles are separated into two pages on the site. When conversations or comments do arise (not always), Chinese users discuss articles in Chinese, while Westerners debate in

English. Reader comments on articles and posts in the forum are segregated and not translated. This means a key opportunity, to bridge conversations between Eastern and Western HCI practitioners, is missed.

Readers want to see more communication between Chinese and Western participants. If an article and its related comments in English could appear in parallel with its counterpart in Chinese, it might encourage more conversations and better achieve the objective of becoming “a bridge [for]

A recent issue of UIGarden in English and Chinese.