Thread: Thai websites : can't they do it right ?

Why do Thai websites here all look like they have been designed by a 14yr old ? they lack structures, color coherence, etc... even government websites are nothing but a joke with broken links everywhere. You would think they would test it first before putting them online, but no, I guess Somchain tested it locally on his PC so it must be right and everything is OK.

So those Thai sites have still a design from the late 90s, most functionalities doesn't work (even Thai Banks functionalities is so so), English is broken, and the links don't work.

Can't they do anything right ?

PS: You are welcome to post a link to a working and nicely designed Thai website here to prove me wrong.

its true.

even the thai expat forum websites are a load of old bollocks

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Thai websites : can't they do it right ?

No, they can't.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

Why do Thai websites here all look like they have been designed by a 14yr old?

Because 99% of Thais only manage to develop to about the level of a 14 yo westerner.

I agree. Many websites here it seems that they gave up designing them halfway through, and thought "Sod it, I'm off for lunch" and then forgot all about them.

I'd wager hard cash that this was the case in 50% of instances.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Because 99% of Thais only manage to develop to about the level of a 14 yo westerner.

Sad but true. I doubt most of them get that far.

Plus, most of them are auditory, not visual thinkers. That's why their web sites are full of all that flashing, blinking nonsense. They need that to keep their eyes and attention focused. Otherwise their auditory mode triumphs and they sit there waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

They don't check links because they really don't expect anyone to ever click on one.

A visual thinker will worry about consequences (a dead link). It never occurs to an auditory thinker.

Originally Posted by buadhai

A visual thinker will worry about consequences (a dead link). It never occurs to an auditory thinker.

That's an interesting way to put it.

OK, let's look at three examples of popular but horrible Thai web sites:

Sanook

Kapook

DekDee

Of course, first you'll notice how long these sites take to load because of their heavy use of animation, Flash, etc.

Second notice how cluttered and disorganized they are. None of them have any visual focus point. Clearly designed by people who are auditory, not visual thinkers.

As the OP says: no structure, no coherence. Visual thinkers, like most Westerners, are lost. But Thai people, who are mostly in auditory mode, love them. Why, because they don't organize their thoughts spatially and sequentially; so the lack of structure seems perfectly normal. And, it works for their thought modality.

The first two made me want to puke - ditched the 3rd - took too long to load

I have a customer who has just spent $5000 with a Thai web designer. It looks really good, but the designer had no ideas at all. My customer had to tell him exactly what he wanted. He may as well have done it himself.

9,000 posts - you whore

Actually this reminds me that I need to talk to you about web design. I will contact you when I am back on broadband. No email at all or internet since wednesday has cost me over $5,000 already.

Originally Posted by watterinja

It's the same at the Universities - the English pages are 80% Thai with useless broken links

actaully that reminds me a year or two back my (australian) university tutor in my masters program warned me about plagarism...

and told us a tale about the previous year a Thai student in same program had submitted an essay that was entirely cut and pasted and then complaigned that it wasnt plagarised because it was cut and pasted from more than one website .....

not only Thai, but I see Japanese sites sharing the same concept of design. Could it be some kind of Asian thinking thing ?

i read an intersting article just the other day about the language learners and different modes of thinking...

the conclusion was that Asians think in a spiral and thus have difficulties with learnign english etc.

OK, I will try and accept the excuse for the visual mess but I cannot accept any excuse for websites that just don't effing work.

I think Japanese are also auditory thinkers, so their websites suffer from the same design flaws. I think this also results in the ridiculous "cute" syndrome which causes serious businessmen to paste "Hello Kitty" stickers on their mobile phones.

As for the "just don't effing work" problem: it's the same cause. Auditory thinkers don't expect a linear world. If things don't work out; well, they just didn't work out. If a link doesn't work. Why worry, the page has thousands of others; try one of them.

Language learning is the same deal. English is a very linear language with extreme precision as to place and time. This morning I asked Ms. B how to say, "It was just raining". The answer? "Fon tok". But that means "it's raining now". So what? When it rained doesn't matter. Now? Before now? No difference. Linearity doesn't mean much.

Originally Posted by buadhai

This morning I asked Ms. B how to say, "It was just raining". The answer? "Fon tok".

Blimey your Mrs can't speak thai.

It is something along the lines of
"mert agee mee fon tok"

i wouda said

"lah-gore fon tok"

as in raining before....

or even

"wan nee lah-gore fon tok"

Originally Posted by kingwillyhggtb

i wouda said "lah-gore fon tok"

"And then rain fall" ???

Up to you...

Sure, when I pressed her she came up with a couple of past tense utterances, but the tendency is to ignore temporal relationships.

Here's a good translation to try on your Thai experts:

"A week from now I will have known for two weeks that in six months I will have been in Thailand for two years."

Originally Posted by Thetyim

Blimey your Mrs can't speak thai.

I'll let her know...

Originally Posted by MeMock

Actually this reminds me that I need to talk to you about web design. I will contact you when I am back on broadband. No email at all or internet since wednesday has cost me over $5,000 already.

Whenever mate. No worries.

Originally Posted by buadhai

Sure, when I pressed her she came up with a couple of past tense utterances, but the tendency is to ignore temporal relationships.

Here's a good translation to try on your Thai experts:

"A week from now I will have known for two weeks that in six months I will have been in Thailand for two years."

crikey - i cannt even work that out in english...

Originally Posted by kingwillyhggtb

crikey - i cannt even work that out in english...

Sure you can, you just need to get the taxi chick out of your mind for a bit.

^ gimmi a break - i is an aussi u no!

Originally Posted by kingwillyhggtb

^ gimmi a break - i is an aussi u no!

Is that an excuse for being obsessed with the taxi chick or for having trouble with American English syntax?

I've had a few beers too, you know....