Why Japanese Web Design is NOT so different
Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people. It should help people. That’s its role.” — Dieter Rams.
At one time I worked for a company that is often referred to as exemplifying the “distinctive” web design of Japan(*1). This is not to say that I was directly involved with the design of the website, but there were times when I participated in some related projects.
As a UX (User Experience) Designer, many times I found myself caught between improving the value of customer experience and contributing to business profits. As someone who extols the user-centeredness, when I saw the web design at the time—which does not differ greatly from the way it looks now, I didn’t think it delivered a user-centered experience at all.
And yet, sales were always going strong. Even now, the sales of the major businesses that use similar web design referred above are posting record-breaking Year-on-Year sales(*2). The number of unique users is up to 50 million per month (As of July 2014), which is the equivalent of one-third of Japan’s population visiting the website each month.
How is it Possible with that Web Design?
Although I can’t talk about the details, this website which has become the representative media of Japan executes frequent A/B testing, fine-tuning the website through trial-and-error, always looking for more effective creative elements, layout and contents.
Since the time I was there, the company has taken an extremely scientific approach, applying various measures such as analyzing results, setting up hypotheses and systematizing solutions.
The website stands out for its strict alignment with the concept of “business first”, but I was impressed that it also had a user-centered type of framework that would break down KPI (Key Performance Indicator) into a tree structure following the customer journey, translating directly into contributions to the business.
How a website was first built within a company is an important factor, but Japanese people in general tend to prefer maintaining the status quo, and dislike change. Even if people who aim for change in a crisis situation are accepted, there is a tendency to reject those who aim for change when the situation is stable.
The same can be said of websites. More than taking risks making large-scale improvements to a website like the one in my example that has come to have millions of users visit it every month, it is necessary to explore a variety of factors from the user’s perspective.
The Conformity Bias
Such a website is quite unique outside of Japan, and one could find many articles pointing out that this type of web design is behind the curve.
Reasons for this type of web design existing in Japan are often said to be,
- The complexity of the Japanese Writing System, with scripts of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.
- Distinctive Japanese behaviors such as consumer behavior and information acquisition behavior.
However, from my own experience living in both Japan and the US, I find that the essential difference is in the “Pressure to Conform”.
Not all, but most Japanese people have a passive attitude. This is because passivity is drilled into them through education from an early age. The mainstream in education in Japan is for the teacher to lecture unilaterally, and for the students to follow the teacher’s instructions. In classrooms outside of Japan, students practice conveying their ideas to teachers and classmates, using examples in an easy-to-understand manner, and thus getting in the habit of expressing their opinions.
Teachers encourage students to give their ideas by calling on them, but they also ask the class if anyone has something to say, thereby encouraging students to take a chance and voluntarily express themselves. For this reason, students have to confirm their understanding of something by speaking up themselves, and necessarily speak up voluntarily when it comes to questions or problems. Also, by hearing the students’ ideas, other students are able to rethink their own opinions, deepen their understanding through discussion and debate, and learn from applying knowledge.
This probably sounds familiar to anyone reading this article that has been to Japan to give a workshop or lecture. Q&A sessions are different from those in the United States. In Japan there is an additional element, an invisible bias that comes from having grown up over the years in a society where it is natural for people to attune themselves to others, so the audience tends to be silent, thinking above all that they must avoid giving dissenting opinions.
Consumer Behavior that Changes with the Volume of Information
This passivity is reflected in consumer behavior and information acquisition behavior on websites as well.
Here is a sample case study. An overseas web service was getting ready to enter the Japanese market and showed the website they had developed outside of Japan to several dozen Japanese users from age 20 to 50 include both men and women. About 80% of them said that the design of website “lacked credibility.” This website employed a creative, simple, and unified design, with a carefully-tended and economical information design.
The users’ reason was simple.
There is not enough information.
The simplicity and modernity that is often seen in Western Web Design gave these users the impression of not providing enough information, which made them uneasy and engendered a lack of trust.
The test continued.
Next banners or imageries were placed on the right and left sides, filling up the empty space with more content. When the users were shown this design, they were observed to be using it without any resistance. Given a large volume of information to satisfy their initially passive attitudes and the freedom to select what they wanted from among many candidates led to a sense of enjoyment, and resulted in them using the website.
Isn’t the Purpose of Web Design to Contribute to the Business?
The website discussed at the beginning is also the result of design improvements in the form of “adding on,” just as in this test case. Since then I have changed my way of thinking about web design, setting aside my ego as a designer and leaving things up to the user without leading them to the answer on the spot. This website reminded me of things I tend to forget:
- What is the purpose and role of web design?
- What is the value of a web designer?
Take notice, world—this is an example of great, user-centric Japanese Web Design, and it’s how websites are performed in Japan.
BUT I can see change coming a little at a time, by revealing this science and user-centeredness of thoughts, conventional Japanese Web Design will eventually come to be more dramatic that demonstrates the protective role of web design as well as value of web designer brand in such complex business environment.
- http://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-design-is-so-different/ (accessed Nov. 16th)
- http://global.rakuten.com/corp/investors/documents/results/ (accessed Nov. 16th)
Title image Copyright William James via Wikimedia Commons
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Mario Kazumichi SAKATA
