Why is Japanese web design so outdated/bad?

I've always wondered why most of their popular sites are either designed like they're from the mid 90s or made entirely in flash when most of the 'Western' world has moved on from this. For example, look at this example of a Nintendo Japanese official site:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/3ds/aggj/index.html

All done in flash and images.

Now compare it to the European site for the same game:

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-3DS/Luigi-s-Mansion-2-274347.html

Everything's done in HTML 5 and CSS with a bit of Javascript mixed in. Why the big gap in web design between countries? Especially considering that the two sites are for the exact same product by the exact same multinational company...

It's not just Nintendo specific either. Look at most other big sites. You've got stuff like 2ch over there which still use frames and look like something made by a senior school student starting out in web design, And Nico Nico Video seems kind of paranoid compared to Youtube, you can't see anything without logging in and the design is hardly modern in any sense of the word...

Why is this? Some articles I read suggest that web design there is just outdated in general:

http://www.zeldman.com/2010/07/25/the-puzzle-of-japanese-web-design/

http://neojaponisme.com/2009/05/19/the-fear-of-the-internet/

http://neojaponisme.com/2008/05/19/orthopraxy-and-web-addresses/

http://www.tokyowebdesigns.com/advice/2124/japanese-style-web-design

Any ideas why? And for the pure hell of it, should I try and test whether some of these flash layouts could be done in HTML and CSS? Because I'm sort of in the mood to try something like that Useit redesign contest someone held a while back, to take a sample page and try and match the style and functionality with modern code that doesn't rely on outdated technology.

 

Ha, Ha what a thought. I have never thought this before, but I guess I could see where you're coming from. I would think though that you really have to live in a culture to understand the undercurrents that cause things like that. lol.

 

I noticed this, but I never thought enough to really actually think about it (if that makes sense). Maybe they're focused more on content and stability vs. the latest half-finished technologies.

The latest and greatest web stuff does have a certain lack of character and appeal. It's just clean-looking, but a bit soulless. Their sites have a more, I don't know, warm appeal to them. Kind of like the difference between vinyl records and CDs.

 

It's what they think is best for what there companies needs. If flash satisfies their needs, then it's the best they can do. Maybe they don't know how to code CSS, Javascript, or some other language.

xHysteria.

 

As a person who is living in Taiwan, I can totally relate.

Just take this Taiwanese weather website (GOV):
http://www.cwb.gov.tw/eng/

White spaces EVERYWHERE! The other government websites equally look as bad; although, not as bad as the Japanese sites you have listed.

Or:
http://eng.taichung.gov.tw/mp.aspx?mp=1

This one looks like they purchased a template and started using it for their website. Horrible design! I guess I've been spoiled by the nicely designed British government websites:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/
http://www.london.gov.uk/

 

Freaking hell, the first site you linked to looks like half the page didn't load, it's that empty! Heck, it looks like a site with a ton of flash ads after Adblock!

The second one looks pretty generic, definitely. Both also seem to take forever to load for whatever reason.

Any idea why Taiwanese websites look so outdated/mediocre?

 

I have two ideas/clues:

• They just never updated the designs for their websites, so they've stayed the same, like this, for many years.
• The politicians in this country aren't exactly web savvy. - Or from what I can ascertain. I think this directly affects funding on government websites. Although, you really just need to hire the right designer and it should ... look ... okay.

The thing that gets me is that there are some fantastic Taiwanese web designers... they could make the Taiwanese government websites look amazing.

 

As far as Japanese websites go, I believe it is their way and preferences. Look at their anime, their toons, their comic strips. They all like to have such stuff. Maybe a lame reasoning but the facts are that their kid population is decreasing and the older lot dont find places to vent off the "comic" things. (sorry, I find it difficult to express)

And for the Taiwanese websites, I would agree that the Management (politicians) arent that net savvy and as such they dont care. even here in India, there are websites from the government which have so many logical errors and they have no one to complain to or even get a hand to fix them - just because they never care.

 

The Indian space program website is hideous. :o
http://www.isro.org/

 

^Wait, that's a site for a space program?

I would have thought that'd be a place you'd find plenty of good designers and programmers. After all, if you can handle astrophysics, you should be able to handle website design...

 

[QUOTEAs far as Japanese websites go, I believe it is their way and preferences. Look at their anime, their toons, their comic strips. They all like to have such stuff. Maybe a lame reasoning but the facts are that their kid population is decreasing and the older lot dont find places to vent off the "comic" things. (sorry, I find it difficult to express)][/QUOTE]

I find this a very good explanation. I work with Japanese people online every day and They certainly have the skills to make comparable if not better websites and programs.

Maybe they prefer their unique "eastern" way of doing things.

 

Yeah, I don't understand how they came up with such a bad design. It's awful, and for an organisation which uses $1 billion a year, they could have found another designer that is capable of designing an up to date website.

 

Purely personal conjecture but in the case of the ISRO I think the site just reflects that their target audience, local residents, are likely to be using an older machine with an old browser and not the latest & greatest release. While they have many talented developers the 'average' person living in the region will be, for financial reasons, using a PC that would be considered outdated by most here.

 

I don't think that's the reason at-all. If they wanted to do something based on older browsers and older computers, they could have made a much more fluid design that would actually consume less CPU/RAM on peoples computers. Even outdated computers can process up to date web designs and I would say this type of web design that the ISRO are using uses flash, which will actually put more strain on a computer than a website without flash.

 

I think the copyright date at the bottom of the page says it all: 2008.

That weather site looked okay to me. A lot of weather sites are too cluttered and way too heavy.

Despite their ugly designs, some of the Japanese sites have really great content (the ones with tutorials, especially video tutorials).

 

You must not work with older machines very often or remember web design from the 90's. An old Pentium running Win95 most definitely will not handle running current browsers. Back in the day flash based site where the "hit" thing.

 

If it can't handle a modern browser, it certainly can't handle a flash site. Flash uses an absolute TON of resources and memory, to the point many unoptimised sites literally bring down the computer or browser. And even old browsers don't excuse bad design. People still designed good sites in the 90s or early 00s, just without fancy modern technology.

 

Flash has been around quite some time; those old browsers used to run the corresponding versions of flash quite fine back in the day and is why at one time it was so popular.

As for bad design, even some of the biggest players around today started off with sites that would be considered 'bad design' by the modern user with no experience with them. To their credit the ISRO site does not have any animated gifs of constructions workers or scrolling banners. They do have a flashing animated "new" GIF with a wrong color matte though just to keep that old-school feeling.