I hate the websites of most restaurants. They're either too slow, too flashy, too ugly, or just plain uninformative. But even worse than a bad website, are those Luddite eateries that don't even have websites at all. So far as I can tell, there are only three reasons to ever look at a restaurant's website: To check out the menu, find the address or phone number, or to inquire about prices. Nobody goes to these website's to be entertained, though it's nice to have an attractive page to keep up a customer's interest.
Anyway, I'm going to offer a few of my simple rules that every restaurant owner should follow when having their websites designed:
1. Have a Menu, Dammit!
This is, seriously, the most egregious offense any website can make. It's amazing how often you'll come across this ridiculous commission, as though restaurateurs assume that food is the least important part of the dining experience. Reality check: It's the most important part! Often, the menu is left out because it's "coming soon" through a dead link or a button that has yet to be activated, but this is no excuse. If you don't have the menu working, the website isn't working. It's as simple as that.
And if you do have a menu, for pete's sake don't have it as a PDF file. That just annoys me and probably slows down (or crashes) many computers. PDF sucks. Oh, and have all of the prices listed. That's important too. I don't care how good the food sounds, if there are no prices, I'm going to assume you don't want me to see them so I'm not coming there to eat.
2. Keep it Simple, Dammit!
Please, no Flash. If I have to sit through some long, annoying intro just because I'm trying to find a phone number so I can make a reservation, I'm going to be annoyed even before I set foot in your restaurant. Just have a page with clear, simple links that are easy to find and easy to navigate. And don't have some annoying animation that reloads everytime I accidentally hit the wrong link or backup to go to the front page.
And, please, for the love of all that's holy, no music, no sound effects, and no voices yelling at me. I just want to read a menu in peace.
3. Keep it Attractive, Dammit!
Having said that, it's still important that a website look good. And, no, you don't need Flash to look good, just a nice, clean style that doesn't have a garish color scheme or an awkward layout. You try to make your food look good, right? So make your website look good too. But don't have it crash my damn computer.
4. Keep it Updated, Dammit!
If I read your menu online, I don't want to be surprised when I arrive and see that the best looking item is gone. If you have changed your hours or your phone number, you'd better make sure that's corrected on your website. And if I come in for happy hour, the hours you have listed damn well better be accurate, or I'm gonna be pissed.
Some Example Websites:
Here are some examples of some websites I've seen that either impressed me or annoyed me. By no means is this any attempt at an exhaustive, comprehensive list, just some lists that I've read lately with my opinions listed.
Black Bird
This is just a really good, really well designed website. It's simple, it's clean, it's attractive, and everything is easy to find. I'm not nuts about the color scheme, but it's certainly not ugly and does reflect the look of the actual restaurant. Good job.
Cafe Barbette
Ugh!
By no means the worst website around, but boy is it ugly. the restaurant itself seems to pride itself on its odd, almost garish design, but it works a lot better as an interior design choice than it does as a website. Seriously, who thought that white on red was an ok way to display text? Oh, and PDF menu links. And when you look at the menus, it's just black text on a white background. Why couldn't that have been written as html on the website itself?
Lyndale Tap House
Way too much text on the front page -- who's really going to read all this stuff -- but a well designed website all the same. What I want to illustrate here is their menu, which is presented pretty much perfectly as a series of images instead of just boring text or as an annoying PDF file. This is how it should be done. It is a bit small, however, which is one of the problems with using images like this. Too small and the info is hard to read, too big and it'll slow down most computers.
Mt. Fuji
Where to start with this one? First of all, it's just ugly. Bad colors, awkward design, and a less than intuitive layout. I mean, look at that menu? They couldn't have formatted that a little better so it wasn't just a giant page full of text that takes forever to scroll through? Break it up into sections.
Also, and worst of all, this is the website that inspired by above rant about websites that have their happy hour times wrong. The website says happy hour on Saturday starts at 9:00pm, but Shannon and I discovered the hard way that it actually begins at 9:30pm. The server Brandon was apologetic and very accommodating when I politely complained, agreeing to charge us the happy hour price for our drinks as long as we were ok with waiting the extra twenty minuted before ordering food at the discounted prices. This was nice on his part, but hardly a perfect compromise considering the blame was entirely theirs. He also mentioned that at least one other party that evening had the same problem as us. And looking at their website, it has yet to be fixed.
Sushi Tango
This website is a marvel of graphic design, but it's also annoying to navigate, too loud, and annoys me. I hate Flash, but I will admit that this website has pretty good Flash, and the menu bar on the bottom keeps things from getting too hard to follow. But, still, I'd rather just not have all of this pizazz.
The Herkimer
One of my favorite restaurants also has one of my least favorite websites.
Let's just look at that front page for a second. What is the most prominent feature? A field to search for available tables and make a reservation. This is odd because Herkimer doesn't take reservations. You seat yourself. So why have this awkward, ugly field on the front of your website that serves no purpose and
directs people to a different website?
And their menus are PDFs.
So... how's my website?
