Is Google’s new design cluttered or cultural?

Google has announced it will make it’s Korean-language page more, well, Korean in December. Ordinarily a bare-bones page with a single search box, Google will change its look by adding information on news, images, and blogs on the main page. It will thus resemble Naver, Daum and other popular Korean portals.

“That’s rather unfortunate,” writes old o. “Now when I randomly get redirected to google.kr I’ll be bombarded with information I don’t want nor did I ask for.”

One reason for Google’s struggles in Korea is because the stripped-down design is unfamiliar to Korean users, just as the busy appearance of Korean sites can be overwhelming to foreign users. Take, for example, Gmarket, where each page is filled with flashing animated pictures.

“It looks like an explosion in a GIF factory,” writes Stevie Bee. “Do they actually have qualified designers working for them? What sort of tasteless, clueless lackwit would lead the design of a site like that?”

“I think my brain just exploded from looking at that Gmarket site for more than 10 seconds,” writes This Is Me Posting.

Stevie Bee continues: “I realize Gmarket is going for the ‘cheap and cheerful’ look of an apartment driveway 1,000-won market, but this is the Internet, and this is 2009, and they really ought raise their game.”

Responding to whether Gmarket is an “eyesore,” David tz writes, “An eyesore to whom? A Korean or a person used to Google minimalism? A lot of those animated gifs are graphics provided by the companies selling products on Gmarket. It’s not the complete fault of the designers of Gmarket. It’s also mostly a Korean design aesthetic (Ever seen a flyer for a nightclub? Same thing). To a Korean, it’s awesome; to a person who has grown up with Google, it’s an eyesore and let’s face it, Gmarket is not designed with you in mind - eBay is.”

“You guys are missing the whole point,” writes justin. “Web sites are designed as so because they cater to the Koreans. They have little or no interest in bringing Westerners to their site,” he writes of sites like Gmarket that do cater almost exclusively to Koreans. “So as far as designs go, you should accept it as a cultural difference rather than as an indication of poor aesthetic decision.”

But he continues: “I just checked http://gmarket.co.kr, and my god I must say that’s a pretty horrible site ... I didn’t know it was that bad because I never checked their main Web page ... Nonetheless, I still have to say that there is no right or wrong when it comes to design. It’s a subjective discipline that can’t be quantified in numbers ...so the beauty can only be in the eye of the beholder.”

“Koreans are bred on kimchi as much as they are bred on this type of design,” writes Ryan G., “and no amount of complaining from us will change anything soon. It matters not how high and mighty we think of our own opinions on this subject. I think this is debate has more meat in a sociological sense, rather than an aesthetic sense. I mean, compare the hustle and bustle of a Korean street market to the Gmarket site, and it all makes sense. Koreans sell shoes, donuts and mops on the side of the road, often from barely more than a cardboard box ... All of these stalls are randomly strung about the streets in a way that resembles Korean Internet site designs. Maybe it’s the ‘hidden treasure’ feel the Koreans want as they buy their items online and offline.”

Companies out to appeal to foreign customers do need to modify their sites to meet different expectations. However, sites that cater to Koreans are organized differently, and perhaps justin is right that it’s a cultural, aesthetic difference that just needs to be accepted.

*Readers are welcome to send suggestions for topics that they wish to be covered or blogs that they would like to see featured in this column. Please e-mail us at: estyle@joongang.co.kr.

These comments were collected by Brian Deutsch from recent blog posts. To read more, visit his blog Brian in Jeollanam-do at: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/.

By Brian Deutsch Contributing writer