Why do most Russian customers not perceive minimalistic web design?

Question

User interface

More than once I came across comments like: “Well, just don’t need these modern features like minimalism, do it normally.” Is it normal - is it a bunch of overweight gradients and unnecessary decor?
Once, while working on a site, I provided a minimalistic version of the design as an alternative. The customer writes: “Why did you send me a prototype?”. My God! Are we really that far behind in development?!)
I perfectly understand that each project is individual: somewhere the design should be rich, somewhere it should be simpler. But why do we perceive minimalism as a designer's hack? This is much more difficult to draw than a lurid shnyaga with a bunch of dice, volumes and shadows. Minimalism, at a glance, highlights all the smallest details: grid, block order, fonts, accents; if at least one of the above is missed, it’s not the same.
Well, this is cool:

Answer 1

For the most part, it is not the customers who do not perceive minimalism, but you do not perceive the needs of the customer. Obviously, the customer's website should help him achieve certain business goals. It is also obvious that the customer knows better and feels his target audience better. When you think about minimalism, you forget that design is how a thing works, and you only think about how it looks. Let's say, for IKEA consumers, it's cool, because it will work. But for consumers of chebureks from Aram, this will not work. And no matter how “cool” the design looks in your opinion, this look will remain “taste”.
If you cannot give the client a solution that will help achieve the goal, it means that you are lagging behind in development, not him. If you think that your minimalist solution will still help, justify it and you will be heard. Can't justify? It is possible that behind your minimalism there is nothing but minimalism.

Answer 2

The domestic customer mixed the concepts of design and a beautiful picture, which is partly the fault of the designers themselves.
The Russian client is convinced that the cost of work is directly proportional to the amount of graphics drawn, and it is far from always possible to explain to him what minimalism is, why it costs good money. And talk about the grid, layout, typography, etc. usually problematic. Instead of arguing, I usually show customers the sites of large brands (all of them are made very minimalistically), as a rule, resistance stops.

Answer 3

Because we don't have a design culture.
Because we have a "Russian business" - with characteristic owners.
Because we do not know the word "aesthetic", but they know "richer".

Answer 4

.Mrchno and minimalist, different things! In your example, it is gloomy, like from the underworld!

Answer 5

There is one thought, I'm not sure that it is valid for sites .... Why did the sale of software take root badly in our country from the very beginning? Because a Russian person, paying money for something, must feel it physically. He does not understand that he paid 10 bucks for something amorphous and weightless. Hence, for example, the sale of antiviruses in boxes containing just a piece of paper with a code. The box is huge, weighty, and there is just a sequence of numbers.
It's the same with the site. Investments are not felt. Subjectively - I would run away from such customers - they themselves do not know what they want.

Answer 6

Imitation of violent activity and reporting. If you remember our universities. Either old people from the 80s or young masters who could not get a job teach there. They need to make time. The more time worked, the more money they will pay: “Did you misunderstand the material? Nothing, we will conduct a consultation. We have nowhere to rush, we don’t work anywhere.” The more divs, the more work, the better.
And if on the topic, then for CV sites or business cards you need minimalism and rigor. For online stores, alas, no. Ozone and Amazon are from the 90s.

Answer 7

Because the development goes like this:
there is nothing -> a lot of everything -> we leave only what is needed
Many customers are still at the level of the first "->" ... and this is not only on the web

Answer 8

Beauty is a subjective concept and what is beautiful for one person, nation, era will not necessarily be beautiful for others. No wonder there is a Russian-folk saying: "The taste and color - one enemy." One can recall the nudes of Renaissance painters - now they seem to us too well-fed. And saucers behind the lower lip, in some wild tribes. They consider it beautiful. The same rules apply in web design. I think that people should not be accused of "collective-farm" taste just because they do not accept some direction that is now fashionable in the West. Moreover, everything develops in a spiral and maybe the customer demands something that is about to become super fashionable. Although I am not a designer, I participate in the development of sites.

Answer 9

There is excellent minimalism, and there is a parody of minimalism. And the last even an ordinary person can notice.
No, not cool at all.

Answer 10

Well, this is cool:

not really...
But in general: each project has its own interface.

Answer 11

That's why www.artlebedev.ru/kovodstvo/sections/102 In most cases, minimalist design gives up with a bad set of content. And it looks bad.

Answer 12

I think by "normal" I mean not a minimalistic mobile first, but a typical desktop design, when the entire screen is filled with information, such as on the same Yandex or ozone.
All the same, minimalism and mobile first are closely related, and the amount of information began to be limited mainly focusing on mobile devices. Those. such design starts with the mobile version.
Tell customers that you do not have minimalism, but a version created taking into account the needs of customers using mobile devices, and the percentage of such visitors is growing every day, and if you make a desktop version, then you need to make a mobile version, and thanks to minimalism, you can save time and money. Say that in such versions of sites, the client's attention is focused on the most important information, and this increases the conversion.
But it is better, of course, to agree on which design the customer prefers, although he is not a designer, but I think if he himself does not like it, then he will not agree to accept the designer’s point of view without weighty arguments.

Answer 13

Put yourself in the place of the customer - how the proposed solution will obviously objectively and unambiguously help you sell more / easier.