From The puzzle of Japanese web design, where the author discussed the paradoxical style of Japanese websites.
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Given Japan’s world-leading preference for the boldly simple in the applied and graphic arts, it’s puzzling that so many Japanese website designs prize clutter over clarity. The online presence of Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare is typical of the style. See also Japan Airlines, stat.go.jp, mora.jp and so on. Even web consultancies show off their capabilities on sites that are models of this strangely cluttered aesthetic—an aesthetic that is doubly strange coming from a culture that has long prized elegant simplicity.
First, I am holding a baseline that users prefer to find their information with the least efforts, including the action of eye-moving and clicking. So the so-called minimized design is never “highly usable”, unless the original purpose is to concentrate focus. This assumption again seems abstruse as most minimalists try to attract the website visitors to the dedicated vector arts or illustrative icons.
The examples given above are mostly from organizations who provides services or information. Now the web designers have two choices. One is to gather all the information together so that users can skim between lines and words. The alternative is then to sort all the mess carefully so that no one could get lost during navigating. Unfortunately, very few websites could come up with a perfect categorization. Just like this xkcd comic implies, for the majority of the visitors, the most useful things are seldom on the front page. Then why not left the choices for user’s eyes? It’s utilitarianism to the maximum. It has nothing to do with Bauhaus.
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