Design is subjective; ‘good’ design changes by region, city and individual. Design elements that may seem antiquated to one, may be fresh or reinvented by another so we try not to judge - except when it comes to websites that are “fucking ugly.” These were the words Techinasia editor, Anh Minh Do, used to appropriately describe the state of Vietnamese website design.

Vietnam has become a hotbed for IT outsourcing over the last 5 -10 years and the country is churning out IT graduates at breakneck pace. But, according to Do, many young designers don’t think about user experience or user interface when creating websites. This, he concludes, is a systemic ailment that can only be treated by a “desperately needed” design revolution.

Beyond aesthetics, Do sees lazy coding as another major weakness in the Vietnamese website design industry. The availability of coding resources online has exploded the last few years so engineers are no longer forced to write their own like the previous generation. Designers are not being innovative – instead of thinking critically to develop deep and well-rounded products, they are copying code they find online. And it shows:

“I’ve talked to several leaders in the startup industry off the record, and they’ve said that when you look at websites these days – like e-commerce, online products, etc. – you can see that the products aren’t that deep. They’re easy to make.”

For now, these sites will be just fine no matter how “fucking ugly” they are, but the internet is an international platform. So, as Vietnam’s design industry continues to grow and scale, there will be a point where they are forced to compete with Western companies who have decades of ‘good’ design under their belt.

[Techinasia // Image via Kekmiller]