Why Japanese sites are losing foreign tourists
Duration : 2 days
Tools : Miro
Skill: User research
Meiji Jingu is one of the most visited sites in Japan, located in Tokyo near the Shibuya district !
The place is stunning, but unfortunately, its website doesn't reflect that quality.
Process: As a product designer, I conducted a short research study to better understand the pain points and motivations of foreign users.
For this mini study, I interviewed 6 expats living in Japan and asked them a few open-ended questions:
How would you describe your experience using Japanese tourism websites?
What kinds of frustrations have you encountered?
What improvements would you expect?
After completing the interviews and organizing the insights on Miro, I discovered some valuable takeaways:
5 out of 6 said the English translations were incomplete or poorly written.
All 6 found the user experience unintuitive compared to Western standards.
All 6 struggled to find key information due to poor content structure.
Result: This project helped me realize how crucial it is to adapt your design to the right audience. If you simply translate content without rethinking the UX, most foreign users will continue to have a poor experience , even if they understand the language.
