I will never understand why people are complaining that Japanese websites are "outdated".

They load incredibly fast, don't use almost any resources (many don't even require JS!), use native scrollbars and give you information you're looking for at a single glance.

Compare that to most modern websites that can easily hog 2GB of RAM with JavaScript, want to do scrolling themselves and require 4K screens because muh design language.

Japanese websites are a pinnacle of usability and I will die on this hill

@elly wow okay I did NOT know that many of them don't use JS and now I'm jealous. We're BLOWING IT over here haha

@elly is there some room left on that hill?

@elly not gonna “thing, japan” but yeah

sometimes outdated is good

@elly that screenshot does not even look outdated at all

@fun @elly idk... Looks super outdated to me.

Like, where's the automatic full screen modal that takes 30 seconds to load so I can make an account? Where's the chat dialog on the bottom right with an AI agent ready to answer all of my questions? How am I supposed to share this on instatikface?

(I'm kidding of course, in case that wasn't obvious lol)

@elly I would argue that they are outdated and that outdated websites are better. people have worked really hard to make the web worse over the last couple decades

@elly Good point!

Now you mention it, Japanese sites do seem to keep their focus on what the site is intended to say.

To my mind a good website informs people or offers a message, using words and pictures with links.

I don't need animated transitions and dancing penguins. And if they don't weigh it down with eleventy-three tonnes of tracking crap, they don't need a "We use cookies" page where I would need to select 753 partners individually to say "NO".

@craftyguy @fun @elly absolutely agree the tech is optimal in many cases but the layout of sites like Rakuten and hotpepper are a UI navigation disaster.

@elly *many japanese websites
pixiv is horrific

But it is delightful how many japanese websites and personal pages still exist in a less horrible form; I experienced a lot of this looking for documentation on PC-9801 series computers.