How Japanese Minimalism Changed Software Design

Introduction to Japanese Minimalism

Japanese minimalism powerful not just as a way of life hi I'm Maria condo Japan's most extreme minimalist but also in software design but what we're going to do is get rid of all these buttons and just make a giant screen on the one hand Japan is known for their extremely cluttered design but on the other hand we have this also from Japan what is going on here after scouring through research papers analyzing minimalist websites and even learning from Buddhist monks I'll answer these questions where did

Origins of Japanese Minimalism

Historical Roots in Zen Buddhism

Japanese minimalism come from how has it impacted today's Tech what's the psychology behind it and if I was a software developer or designer why should I care I'm a ux designer with a degree in cognitive science let's dive into the design psychology of Japanese minimalism how was the whole thing born minimalism existed in Japan for thousands of years with its roots in Zen Buddhism we can see this portrayed physically through Zen Gardens when I studied abroad in Kyoto I visited one of

them and I experienced this specific sense of Peace the way that the stones are arranged and how the sand gathers in this certain pattern everything just felt very peaceful turns out it wasn't just this Garden the entire city of Kyoto just felt Serene there would be days where I would literally get up go out of the door and just walk alone for hours and hours on end because after those walks I would find a mental Clarity that I really haven't experienced before maybe it's the architecture the people the nature

Living in the Present

something about it just felt peaceful one day I even walked past this man with his herd of Seagulls this is by the river near karasuma o station and this man is here every single day with his seagulls doing his thing the man really was just living in the present and that is one of the most foundational ideas in Zen budism staying present I think minimalism in this sense is more of a sensory thing because you don't have many external extractions or the environment around you is just so simple

Minimalism in Japanese Technology

Why Simplicity Matters in Tech

you feel a sense of inner peace but let's talk about minimalism in terms of Technology where softwares and websites have adopted a simple style which from a user experience perspective is wonderful because users can get things done in a calm and straightforward manner well here as a Buddhist monk explaining why less is more when we have more things we just have more responsibilities and we just have to take care of it and for monks is by having less things we just have less problems today minimalism is

Functional Minimalism in a Dense Country

more functional Japan is a very dense country which means people there have to make use of every single inch of space this means living in small homes having small shops minimalism then is essential turns out this lack of space problem is not just in Japan it's our entire digital space well websites software apps in a world with so much data but not enough storage like let's be real here you've debated between different models of phones and laptops purely based on its storage size so in a world

Minimalism for Digital Efficiency

where we have limited space how can we design and build something that is efficient simple easy on the storage from the beginning let's take a look at how this style directly impacted technology Apple products Steve Jobs followed the Zen aesthetic of Simplicity since day one this is a photo of him with an early Apple computer that displays a digital famous Japanese wood block print hashiguchi goo's woman combing her hair as an advid follower of Zen Buddhism he Led Apple in adopting the Mantra Simplicity is the ultimate

Minimalism’s Influence on Tech Giants

Apple and the Zen Philosophy

sophistication we see this in the minimal iOS apps physical design of iPhones and even the packaging of Apple products the man the legend Steve Jobs he cares about design and right here he explains what design exactly means to him and so we don't really talk about design a lot around here we actually just talk about how things work um most people think it's how they look but it's not really how they look it's how they work indeed design has always been treated as this tool for function for Apple products so the last

A Shift Away from Minimalism?

thing that you're going to see is Apple adding decorative elements just to make things pretty function over fashion if you will however it seems like apple is Shifting away from that recently look at The Branding for Apple intelligence it's a lot of colors a lot of things going on there's something different here compared to apple 10 years ago why do you think that is is it because the CEO changed the business model changed reorgs happened what could it be another example of how minimalism impacted

Google’s Minimal Search Interface

technology is the Google search engine now Google probably didn't directly credit Japanese minimalism to this but this whole simple page only search bar idea is a minimalist principle why put anything else on the page other than the essential function what about apps softwares well before 2010 people loved skew morphism which is a style where interface design mimics real life objects however after 2010 there's been a shift to a more flat minimal style where we see softwares now prioritize

Japanese Minimalism in Website Design

The Concept of Kanso (Simplicity)

content get rid of Shadows and opt for a flat design gar is a Japanese term referring to decluttering specifically to homes and physical spaces but we also see this used in Japanese website design one of you actually reached out to me on LinkedIn to send me these resources thank you and please keep them coming think of this channel as a big research project run by all of us anyway with the Whit space this website looks strangely relaxing even though the layout is a bit different than what we're used to seeing

Cultural Serenity in Web Layouts

and tying it back to the culture of Zen Buddhism minimalism brings peace and serenity okay what's stop stops minimalism from becoming just another stupid design Trend what's the science behind it that makes it still relevant give me the real psychology stuff well minimalism informs good user experience why first negative space is used as a means of highlighting the best way to emphasize something is to put nothing around it a 2019 study analyzed the reaction of Millennials on minimal versus maximal website design though in

Psychology Behind Minimalism

Negative Space and Focus

this case for some reason Millennials preferred maximal design which is designed with lots of information qualitative data shows that they recognized how minimal design draws Focus one of them said I think that the minimal web page was more clear and focused on the art on the maximal page it felt like the whole web page was an art project itself the maximal page was a bit messy though these were all self-reports it shows that people do find it easier to focus on a specific subject when the design uses minimalism

Cognitive Load: Less Is More

and negative space next when it comes to cognitive load less is more what is cognitive load cognitive load is the amount of mental effort a user needs to understand and process the information that is shown to them for instance this may just cause more cognitive load compared to something like this because of the information presented and Studies have shown the benefits of reducing cognitive load a 2021 study involved this application that helped children with learning disabilities improved their working memory capacity they

Performance Benefits of Low Cognitive Load

basically tested the children's performance when they were placed in different levels of cognitive load which was determined by their environment how hard the task actually was and so on but basically it was found that children's training performance and their perceived experience were better in the gamified activities with a lower cognitive flow level in this case less is more with less stimulation they just perform better so let's apply this to software design like let's just be nice to your

Why Developers and Designers Should Care

Minimalism Is Easy to Implement… But Hard to Think

users let's be nice and make something that gets them from point A to point B without them thinking a lot at all a minimal design with negative space and simple design features will get that done okay let's say I'm a developer why the heck should I care about any of this design stuff ah yes my lovely coder friends minimalism is extremely easy to implement however I got to warn you though the emphasis of minimalism is the absence of something it requires the presence of thinking that's just my

Intentionality in Design

poetic way of saying bro you have to think I'm sure you're familiar with this how do I make something run more efficiently how do I make sure that this takes up less data minimalism is easy to implement technically because you're literally coding fewer things but it takes a lot of precode theoretical thinking work it's all up here and the exact same goes for my fellow designers before you go on to figma and start playing around with design components Design Systems blah blah blah think

Start With the Core Function

about what you're trying to solve in the first place place what is the key feature of this app start with that and be very intentional about every additional thing you add so what can I do with this information about Japanese minimalism well as designers software Engineers Builders we got to think what is the single most important thing that you want your product to provide and anything else you add if it's not for function then question it why is it there do you prefer a animalism style

Conclusion & Reflection

Your Creative Responsibility

how does it make you feel do you find it easy to implement or design or do you hate it Book quote time as producer Rick Ruben says to create is to bring something into existence that wasn't there before what will you bring to this world