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The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

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Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#91

Post by GaryBluto »

iamnothere wrote: post #8

I prefer the Japanese style. Information dense, yet clean. It reminds me of the web before Apple-style minimalism took over. To contrast with a superficially similar style, Chinese web stores are also maximalist, but they tend to assault you with popup coupons, confetti effects, and other such things. Japanese style feels very efficient and utilitarian by comparison.

> Apple-style minimalism took over.

To be fair, it was Microsoft-style minimalism that Jony Ive brought to Apple, who then popularized it.

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#92

Post by m4rtink »

flakiness wrote: post #82
tshaddox wrote: post #16

> While the nation is known abroad for minimalist lifestyles, their websites are oddly maximalist. I’m not aware of this stereotype of Japanese minimalism. I guess there’s Marie Kondo, and some Japanese high-end dining tends towards minimalism. But then there’s manga, anime, kawaii, Nintendo, Sega, Miyazaki, etc., a lot of which is closer to maximalism than minimalism.

A subset of Japanese people use minimalism as a justification as lesser purchase power these days. That said, I think the Japanese commercial ecosystem is still less wasteful than the one in the US except the excessive plastic wrapping. I hope one day they realize that won't count as "Omotenashi".

I think a lot of what looks like to much wrapping can be explained by high humidity year round. The wrapping protects products from spoiling or being damaged in such an environment.

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#93

Post by numpad0 »

flakiness wrote: post #82
tshaddox wrote: post #16

> While the nation is known abroad for minimalist lifestyles, their websites are oddly maximalist. I’m not aware of this stereotype of Japanese minimalism. I guess there’s Marie Kondo, and some Japanese high-end dining tends towards minimalism. But then there’s manga, anime, kawaii, Nintendo, Sega, Miyazaki, etc., a lot of which is closer to maximalism than minimalism.

A subset of Japanese people use minimalism as a justification as lesser purchase power these days. That said, I think the Japanese commercial ecosystem is still less wasteful than the one in the US except the excessive plastic wrapping. I hope one day they realize that won't count as "Omotenashi".

Wet Japanese climate necessitate sterile packaging. It's not as extreme as the Southeast Asia, but things do get soggy in matters of hours. So "excessive" aluminized plastic wrapping is just a necessity.

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#94

Post by a456463 »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #62
iamnothere wrote: post #8

I prefer the Japanese style. Information dense, yet clean. It reminds me of the web before Apple-style minimalism took over. To contrast with a superficially similar style, Chinese web stores are also maximalist, but they tend to assault you with popup coupons, confetti effects, and other such things. Japanese style feels very efficient and utilitarian by comparison.

>"It reminds me of the web before Apple-style minimalism took over." The loss of color and texture is my biggest gripe. So many webpages and user interfaces abandoned the idea of distinguishing components using different colors and just went with making the page as close to bleach white as possible. I suppose an upside of this is that it made dark-mode easier to adopt. That being said, good dark mode support seems re…

And now all AI slop coded by anyone is that. Tell tale signs: AI likes to make cards, implement SVGs by hand, all cards have a left hihghlight border, off center font spacing, badges and notification icons, etc.

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#96

Post by ezoe »

usui wrote: post #22

I read this piece when it came out in 2022. Maybe it should be marked with "(2022)". Previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33745146 I just want to add that in addition to peculiar web design, Japanese websites have a way of assuming architectures or usage patterns where servers need to sleep or do some kind of scheduled job, which is really weird for people used to sites that need to account for a…

Probably the old habit of batch processing.

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#97

Post by bryanrasmussen »

usui wrote: post #22

I read this piece when it came out in 2022. Maybe it should be marked with "(2022)". Previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33745146 I just want to add that in addition to peculiar web design, Japanese websites have a way of assuming architectures or usage patterns where servers need to sleep or do some kind of scheduled job, which is really weird for people used to sites that need to account for a…

this is also relatively common in Denmark, at least for government sites. One common thing you see (saw, haven't noticed in the last couple years) in Danish .gov sites is queuing where you need to wait some time before you are allowed in to use a site.

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#98

Post by Multicomp »

usui wrote: post #22

I read this piece when it came out in 2022. Maybe it should be marked with "(2022)". Previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33745146 I just want to add that in addition to peculiar web design, Japanese websites have a way of assuming architectures or usage patterns where servers need to sleep or do some kind of scheduled job, which is really weird for people used to sites that need to account for a…

I forget if it was Samsung or Sony, but somewhere along the way on my internet journey, someone claimed, without evidence, and thus I have none either, that the incentive structure for having prestige jobs at large technology companies was always in hardware design and software was seen as easier and more low class.

So since nobody will get any promotions for running good software, they are not incentivized to run good software, and therefore they do just enough to get by?

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#99

Post by rickcarlino »

thewebguyd wrote: post #49
rickcarlino wrote: post #18

Are westerners entering a period of “minimalism fatigue”? Anecdotally it seems like color and texture are slowly taking hold in designs, especially in works targeting a younger demographic. Example: liquid glass, anything published by Taco Bell, the meme of making sites look like they came from Geocities in 99, etc...

I hope so. I never bought into the minimalism/flat design hype and have lamented its loss ever since. What’s worse is it bled out of the digital world and into the physical. There’s a real lack of color in our modern world, at least over here in the US. Everything is so neutral and boring, all in the name of efficiency.

And while they are at it, I hope they give us our scrollbars back. They seem to shrink by one pixel every year...

Re: The peculiar case of Japanese web design (2022)

#100

Post by casey2 »

Japan is a highly literate population, so anybody using a Japanese website can read Japanese. Literacy among the English speaking world is much poorer. Growth metrics push large companies into minimalist design for both habit forming and accessibility reasons.

Most of the sites shown are the equivalent of a weekly ad. You have an interest cut off, and you show that limited set of information. Since Japan is a very "low trust" society I'd assume most people just think minimalist sites look like a scam startup venture.

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