By Nick Haas
If you want to drive away potential customers visiting your website, do these 10 things:
- Create a long introduction with music.
- Make users click onto a PDF to get the menu. Be sure to use tiny writing and fancy scripts to make it hard to read online, forcing people to use a printer.
- Use Flash so people can’t access your site using their smart phones.
- Make critical information such as address, locations and hours difficult to find.
- Don’t check email very often and fail to respond to comments and inquiries.
- Don’t allow online reservations.
- Design a dull site that gives no indication of the dining experience people can expect.
- Don’t post any photos so customers won’t have any clue about décor or atmosphere.
- List menu items in a confusing, tedious way so people need to spend a long time sorting through to determine if they will like the cuisine.
- Don’t post information about specials, private parties or catering options so people have to pick up the phone and call, leave a message, wait for a reply…..
Want to succeed? Follow these tips instead!
Goal 1: Make a site that people will want to use.
Many restaurant websites have frustrating usability issues such as those listed above. Users coming to a restaurant site want to find information as fast as possible.
Traditional placement of always-visible main navigation in the top with sub navigation on left makes it clear to users at a glance what information they can expect to find and how content rich the site is. The far right column is an ever-present place for reservations, address and hours. Menus should be text driven with an option to download a PDF, and banish Flash!
Goal 2: Showcase ambiance and passion without compromise to user experience
Determine who your site needs to appeal to: young and hip? older and sophisticated? Health conscious? Then effectively communicate this through photographs of the interior design – that’s ambiance. Place the user “inside the space.”
Passion refers to the food, patrons, staff and owners that make a venue alive. Placing prominence on food photography, event photography, extensive menus and company history connects the user to the passion the staff and owners have for their business.
Goal 3: Build an effective mobile site
The mobile audience is on the go; the user needs essential information quickly. Deliver content people want such as reservations, menus, hours, address, map and call functions prominently displayed in one column. Make it easy to take action in one step.
Goal 4: Manage all sites, desktop and mobile through one CMS
All sites should run from one Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is a system that provides administration tools to allow users with little knowledge of web development or design to manage site content easily. Building sites around a single CMS makes it very easy for the restaurant staff to keep content fresh on each site for each location. Staff can update menus, hours, images, events, and careers, as well as add pages when needed.
A restaurant site should be planned and executed like any other type of successful site. There is no reason to keep repeating the common pitfalls that have plagued users for years just because that is what is done by other industry sites. Remember that most of your users, regardless of the industry, spend their time on other websites. They understand what a good user experience is over a bad one, and planning for a good one will reap its rewards for your business.
Nick Haas is web design team leader at Orbit Media Studios. With experience in web, touchscreen, print, large-format graphics, and motion graphics presentation design, Nick brings vital creative insight to the Orbit team. He received his BA in graphic design from DePaul University in 2002.
www.orbitmedia.com
nick@orbitmedia.com
1.773.348.4581