Until recently, I often wondered if the cluttered, loud websites that dominated Indian cyberspace were indicative of a cultural difference in design aesthetics.

Although I knew that the average Indian consumer doesn’t want every pixel on their screen to be blinking or covered with Bollywood gossip, I thought that maybe they had more of a tolerance for it.   In making Indian websites louder and busier, perhaps Indian designers were reacting (or overreacting) to what their audience wanted?

This was exciting to me, because it meant that a competing design sensibility could emerge from talented agencies in Mumbai and Bangalore.   Indian web design could emerge as a wholly distinct movement and compete with the current standard of minimalism synonymous with Web 2.0.

Alas, I was wrong.  With the clean, sensible redesign of the Hindu, it seems that Indian brands are moving towards the Western standard.  There will be no Indian web design movement for now.

On the bright side, reading Indian news no longer makes me want to hide under my desk in fear of clashing colors and flashing banners.