
Why Japanese Web Design Is (Still) the Way It Is - janeboo
https://info.moravia.com/blog/why-japanese-web-design-is-still-the-way-it-is
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ghostbrainalpha
Discussion from yesterday:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16254569](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16254569)

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olyjohn
I am a huge Honda fan, particularly of their vintage vehicles. I used to spend
hours navigating their Japanese website. I don't know any Japanese, but
somehow I could still find my way into new parts of the website and get
around. The site complexity goes way beyond just the front page.

The entire thing is massive, it's full of tons of stuff that you wouldn't find
American corps even bothering to put up there. There are tons of articles,
facts, diagrams, fan sites, historical information, photos. At one point they
had games with little virtual cities. So many cool, and fun things.

The US site is nothing but marketing. It's so boring, I never even bother
going to it. There's no hidden stuff, nothing interesting, just a very sales-
centric site. It's like anything that doesn't directly make money isn't
bothered with... while the Japanese developers are having fun putting together
cool things.

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exikyut
Could you post some links to some of the more fun things you've discovered?

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Mononokay
Am I the only one who thinks that the Japanese versions of the Starbucks and
Toyota sites look infinitely better?

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aplc0r
You won't get any argument from me. The large images and lack of useful text
make sites seem like they are made for children.

Another thing that you don't see as often anymore, that most Japanese sites
have, is a site map.

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digi_owl
Well more and more it feels like devs, not just web devs, but all devs,
envision their users and drooling idiots...

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anfilt
I think, that's kinda been trend with western design in general. Also I agree
with the article, that a lot websites are basically low information brochures.
If I am going to your website it means I want detailed information. However, a
lot products, the site is devoid, and just looks nice.

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digi_owl
I wonder if this is an effect of print media getting involved with the web,
thus trying to adopt various "guidelines" from printed documents to web sites.

