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As someone who reads Japanese passably well and uses a handful of Japanese apps and websites, I don't actually agree with this. Japanese apps certainly look mor

As someone who reads Japanese passably well and uses a handful of Japanese apps and websites, I don't actually agree with this. Japanese apps certainly look more crowded than western ones, but it's mostly with irrelevant garbage, I don't think the density of useful info is actually all that much higher.

whimsicalism 2y ago
I mostly was thinking of chinese apps, I’m not very familiar with japanese ones but saw others mentioning it so I put it here. In Chinese apps, I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same app
- david_allison 2y ago
  Chinese is a much more dense language than English, so you need less space for labels.
- digging 2y ago
  > In Chinese apps, I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same app That seems tangential to UI density. You could do all that in a single app and it could still have an extremely sparse UI.
- eddythompson80 2y ago
  > In Chinese apps, I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same app I don't see how this statement says anything about UI information density. This is just a super app with monopoly over the market. Last I checked (and it's been a while if I'm being honest) WeChat just looked like a custom launcher for other views/apps that all happen to be hosted and controlled by the one company. That's like saying "Android is super dense. I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same device" Pretty sure Facebook or Google would love to be that super app for US/Europe/rest of the world. However, you'd probably shout "monopoly, lock-in, anti-trust, market manipulation" if any single vendor actually tried and succeeded in that. For good reasons too.

whimsicalism 2y ago

I mostly was thinking of chinese apps, I’m not very familiar with japanese ones but saw others mentioning it so I put it here. In Chinese apps, I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same app

david_allison 2y ago
Chinese is a much more dense language than English, so you need less space for labels.
digging 2y ago
> In Chinese apps, I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same app That seems tangential to UI density. You could do all that in a single app and it could still have an extremely sparse UI.
eddythompson80 2y ago
> In Chinese apps, I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same app I don't see how this statement says anything about UI information density. This is just a super app with monopoly over the market. Last I checked (and it's been a while if I'm being honest) WeChat just looked like a custom launcher for other views/apps that all happen to be hosted and controlled by the one company. That's like saying "Android is super dense. I can post photos, message my friends, order food, call an uber, pay transactions, all from the same device" Pretty sure Facebook or Google would love to be that super app for US/Europe/rest of the world. However, you'd probably shout "monopoly, lock-in, anti-trust, market manipulation" if any single vendor actually tried and succeeded in that. For good reasons too.