

Why Japanese web design is so different - pajtai
http://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-different/

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serve_yay
Well, let's not forget the popularity and success of sites like Craigslist and
Drudge Report. Plus don't those images basically look like Amazon or ebay,
only somewhat more cluttered and with more-saturated colors?

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veidr
I think this is a good article; those really are some of the biggest reasons
the Japanese web by and large looks so horrible.

At an HN Tokyo event I once met an American engineer from Rakuten.

Of course we asked him wtf was up with how ugly it looked. He laughed and
swore that they did A/B test it against modern designs, but that ugly won.

My wife is Japanese, and she totally prefers shopping on Rakuten's site to
say, Amazon. She says, "it is ugly, but it's more convenient to use." That
blew my mind, but there it is.

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pllbnk
Many people can argue a lot about what's beautiful and what's not in western
design based on Latin and Latin-like scripts, however I think that the web
design has become more streamlined and easier to consume during the last
decade. Although the new trends with parallax effects and weird scrolling
hacks certainly don't help, but aside from that many websites look really nice
on the eyes.

Since I find randomwire.com a nice looking website, I decided to see what it
would look like in Japanese:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=en&tl=ja&u=h...](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=en&tl=ja&u=http%3A%2F%2Frandomwire.com%2Fwhy-
japanese-web-design-is-so-different%2F). I don't know Japanese and probably
the translation is quite a bit off, so I can only speak about the visual
aspect of it. I think Japanese characters really don't help the design but
overall it doesn't look bad either. Certainly much better than Japanese
websites.

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colept
It's intriguing to see how language influences design and how one design can
have multiple meanings. Language is the only thing that stands in a way of a
international community. It's clear that logographic has the advantage over
phonographic language when concerned with mobile design and wearable
technologies where visual real estate is limited.

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frozenport
The font thing is wrong, Vietnamese is mostly latin mostly but their web look
just as awful!

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fsk
It's also because designers in the USA copy each other.

A couple of trend setters declare that "flat design" is best, and now everyone
is doing flat design. In 2 years it'll be another style where everyone is
copying each other.

