lotsa little squares and two links.
I love this post.

MORE!

.rob

Well, it's in Japanese, so you would need to install Japanese support to view it. You can install it through Windows Update, I believe, if you're using Windows. Mac OSX should have it all set up by default. :)

I'm not convinced that there's an (culturally) objective way to define "good design". The cultural differences in design don't show up just in web-design, but also in everyday design. I'm sure you've noticed how everything from menus to the latest excel spreadsheet tracking management concerns are all radically different from how you (me in this case) would have done it in the first place.

There seems to be a higher natural level of information density in Japanese culture than in American. Americans tend to be more simplistically (or elementarily) orderly and focus on impact and clarity rather than packing as much information as possible into one chart. I must admit that I myself clearly am biased in one way (the American one). I almost had a breakdown when I saw somebody squeeze 4 different scales onto 1 2D graph!

I think that this extends even beyond graphical design and extends into the language itself as well. There's really no (or at least not a strong a) concept of a run-on sentence in Japanese. Thought isn't broken into atomic chunks and communicated in that way. Nuance and breadth seem to be more the focus in Japan. If you take a look at Yumiuri's website in that light, you might have a different opinion.

Just a thought...

You're right, I think. There is definitely a very different aesthetic in Japan especially when it comes to presenting information. Sometimes, I think westerners might look at those things and think they lack good design. I just tend to think that Japanese are more comfortable with complexity, as you suggest... Although they could probably benefit from the attempt to clarify, rather than over-simplify. :)

But what I'm talking about is more basic -- just the fact that many Japanese websites choose font sizes that don't look good in the layout, lack the little images, etc, that make other sites look modern and slick. As well, many Japanese magazine company sites consist of a single page of contact info with little or no actual content online.

Japanese print publications have an incredibly refined sense of design; I just wonder how long it will take most Japanese publishers to carry that sense over to the web. Not many seem to have been able to make the transition well yet. I think it's probably just a matter of time, but also possibly a matter of the learning curve, since so many print publications in Japan use proprietary software.

The vast majority of pages I see in Japan are formatted for cellphones and are really plain and simple. Good design here is a tough nut to crack when one needs to support both keitai and 'nooto pasocon' together.

OSX does have it all set up. So I can say that I agree completely with this post, in all aspects! Oh wait, I don't read Japanese. Hmmm...
I still think it looks beautiful though =)

Actually, Gen, that's something I totally forgot about. Japanese use cell phones much more often than computers for web surfing, so it may not make sense for them to really focus on design PC's... except for the global audience...

I just think they were a bit late to the game when it comes to the web and PC's, but now they'll probably take a cue from Korea and really try to move things onto the web more. The popularity and low cost of broadband now should help as well...

I was always amazed during the 80's and early 90's how few people in Japan ever actually used PC's at home...

何で誰も日本語で投稿しなかったかな。

I think, as a designer, Japanese people tend to accept graphical icons rather than the aesthetics of text and layout.

If you design magazines, text is the most important element of information to the audience. I think the simplysity of print design comes from this perspective. It is important to note that print design is always static, fixed layout space, and have linear pagenation. Web site is more dynamic, you never know how many text would fit into the templete etc. Well, everybody scrolls the page, so the layout can't be fixed anyway.

Also, the Japanese web site has it's own restriction. There is less font available for the web site, and small sized font can't be readable for audience. Since web site development is more collaborative environment compared to print design, the web designer needs to ask HTML developer whether it is possible to make his design on the web...if the HTML developer says no, the designer has to shrink down his idea. There is not much choice for 2-byte web development from the perspective of font and layout...

I'm also guessing that the career and experience of web designers are less than print designers. Most of magazines/news papers/TV media don't make money with web site and they don't want to spend a lot for it. I think Japanese media would spend more money to the web if there is decent bussiness model...but again, Japanese people are more likely to see some impact rather than design aesthetics. Typically, the last minute changes from client made the site design much worth...

I think professional web design has started around 1995 but many other factors such as bored client concerns, lack of decent web design spec are the main reasons why Japanese sites doesn't look good.

That makes me sad because I believe the traddition of Japanese aesthetics is in the simplisity.

I and many of my friends in Japan started using PCs when we were around 8 to 10 years old, my first PC was NEC's PC6001, then I got PC8001FR which is superior gaming machine. Someone had MSX, and someone had Fujitsu or Sharp. That was before Windows 3.x but we only interested in playing games. Maybe that's the reason why Japanese are late in the race in this field. ;)

Thanks a lot for your thoughts as a designer, Kei...

I also lament the lack of font variety for Japanese on the web... It's not that the fonts don't exist, it's just that most people don't have them, meaning they would have to be embedded in the pages, and they don't look good at small sizes anyway, because of the high resolution they require.

I'm hoping that once OLED displays get going, we will see a great increase in display resolution, and Japanese will start to look better and better on the web. :)

ところで、日本語で投稿していないのは、たぶん日本人の読者が少ないのではないかな。