Slashdot Mirror
The Puzzle of Japanese Web Design
I'm Not There (1956) writes "Jeffrey Zeldman brings up the interesting issue of the paradox between Japan's strong cultural preference for simplicity in design, contrasted with the complexity of Japanese websites. The post invites you to study several sites, each more crowded than the last. 'It is odd that in Japan, land of world-leading minimalism in the traditional arts and design, Web users and skilled Web design practitioners believe more is more.'"
"Jeffrey Zeldman brings up the interesting issue of the paradox between Japan's strong cultural preference for simplicity in design, contrasted with the complexity of Japanese websites.
japan's preference for minimalism created a writing style that fits entire words in single character space. with this minimalism their bandwidth per character space increased... they could either take their gains, or up their usage of the character space to that of other writing styles, and see compounded returns, maximizing their value. the japanese written language is about maximizing space. the website is space. japan maximizes the utilization of the space. isn't that what modern minimalist design is all about? if the space is to be utilized for sitting, then all it needs is a chair. there is no paradox here, just a simple minded article author with questionable motives especially considering our government pages full of graphics and text and even video. extra digital content is effectively free. a moose head on the wall isn't. what do racist patriots have to gain by attempting to propagate a labeled paradoxical stereotype upon others? why would they try when their claims fall flat under the least scrutiny? does jeffrey often wonder if all of his countrymen are illogical as he is? if you do, jeffrey, THEY AREN'T.