Dana's Awesome Website

PROJECT ONE RESEARCH

Chosen Restaurant: Terra E Mare Ristorante

• Visual design: The website design leaves a lot to be desired. The site has a simple, rather uninventive gradient header with a simple logo consisting of a Bull and Fish with the restaurant name beneath. The logo is actually nice in its simplicity, but a different background would provide a better setting. The restaurant specializes in seafood and beef, with italian overtones, but the gradient blue and orange colors do not really bring Italy to mind. On the left side of the header is the navigation bar, which consists of two links: "Home" and "Contact Us"! You can't get more simple than that. This sits above a picture carousel which is nicely timed to show food oferrings and the restaurant settings and decor. The carousel stretches across the length of the page which is actually kind of nice. It could use more pictures though. It works better in the mobile design and the website is nicely responsive through its hamburger menu.

   

• Content: Terra E Mare's content is rather lacking. It is very simple in that the home page holds the header and the picture carousel discussed above as well as all of the website content including the contact info which also has its own page. You have to scroll to see all of the content, which is somewhat off putting. Scrolling brings you to a short introduction to the restaurant and their "land meets the sea with an Italian accents" ideology and the chef is introduced. Next is a call to action strip, followed by the menu section. This is made up of four menus and you can click to view them. The links lead to off page rather plain looking menus that open in a new tab (so at least you don't lose the website when you view them.) Finally, there is the repost of a linked article by Gayot Magazine, where the restaurant is hearalded for taking italian food to another level. This is followed by a short message discussing COVID arrangements and contact info for the restaurant (which is also found on the website's Contact page) On the whole, there is little thought to user experience and the site is strictly informational in design.

 

• Navigation: As mentioned, the navigation bar - if it can be called that - is made up of two links. As links go, they are okay. They are dark grey in color, but easy enough to see against the gradient background. It is pretty much a "nothing to see here" navigation bar.



• Functionality: Both links works well. You are either on the home page with all of the content or you can go to the contact page with a working map to help you locate the restaurant.
• Community building (social media) and outreach: The company's Instagram and Facebook are clearly set out on the top, right corner of the home page. Nothing fancy, similar to the rest of the site, but at least Terra E Mare has a social media presence.
• Accessibility: Unfortunately, there are no accessibility options associated with the website.
• Call to action on home page: There is no immediate call to action on the home page. However, if you scroll, you come across a call to MAKE A RESERVATION or ORDER ON LINE - with clickable boxes. These are encased in larger boxes and streatch across the page, so you won't miss them, which is good. But if you don't scroll, you won't see them.



Goals and Target Audience

• Goals: Increase the customer base. Give the website an overall facelift with customer experience in mind, to draw users into the site and into the restaurant. All of the pages expected in a restuarant website should be added and the navigation expanded to include the added pages. Advertise the restaurant’s food offerings. Advertise the restaurant’s environment for those looking for the experience it offers.
• Target Audience: The menu is somewhat pricey, so the restaurant caters to persons with surplus money. It has indoor and outdoor (euro style) seating, so it would be nice for a romantic date, a date with friends or a family meal. It also has a bar, for those that would like to meet and greet.

Reflection Prompts

• What questions need to be answered in order to complete this project?: What is the purpose of the website? How much money does the owner want to invest in the website? Does the owner want to give the user an experience or merely information? Will the owner need someone to maintain the website?
• What tasks do we need to complete in order to successfully design this website?: Interview the owner for their thoughts on the site design. Create the design. Review the design with the owner. Obtain elements like pictures and information from the owner. Build the design. Test the design, with owner input during the process. Review the final design with the owner. Make adjustments as necessary. Deploy the site and test for bugs. Accessibility options need to be added to the website.
• What issues need to be solved?: Determining a new design that conveys the level of elegance and/or feel the owner wants, while showing the offerings in the best light. Understanding the experience the owner wants users of his website to have and make it happen.
• What is our schedule?: The entire wesite must be designed and built by summer.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS (Four Similar Area Restaurants)

Name:Granville Restaurant

• Visual design: Picture carousel is a nice touch; choice of pictures is nice; responsive website, but not secure. Gift card page opens in new tab and is secure. Overall rather plain, but the Careers page has a nice design. Company logo is nice, if a little uninventive. The webiste is responsive and the mobile design is very similar.

   

• Content: The content is much more complete than Terra E Mare's. The site appears to have all of the content necessary to meet the restaurant's goals, but the implementation of the content is not well executed in places. In addition, it appears that the website’s upkeep is somewhat behind, perhaps due to COVID, but as the restaurant is open, operational and serving food (delivery, take out and patio dining), this should have been seen to. Nonetheless, they do have menu, location, gift card, about and social pages - and a pretty kicking job page.
• Navigation: Navigation bar is in thin, off-white lettering and somewhat difficult to see against the pastel, textured grey background. However, the order is sensible and intuitive. There is no home button, but clicking the restaurant name takes you to the home page. Most people will probably figure that out.



• Functionality: Home page carousel stops working after one automatic turn and you must manually operate it to see more. Navigation bar works. Order page - Online ordering menu – none of the links work (maybe discontinued due to covid, but there is no notice advising of this on the page. Menu page opens in new tab without navigation links back to website, which isn't good. Locations page does not connect to show locations, instead you get an eternal hourglass. Unfortunately, while responsive, the mobile reconfiguration loses the picture carousel unless you scroll and the Navigation bar disappears when you scroll page 1. The social media on page data links appear to be broken as they are not updated with the latest tweets/FB messages
• Community building (social media) and outreach: There is a page dedicated to social media and set up for their different stores, but the layout makes it difficult to understand what is going on with the twitter feeds. Facebook feeds are better set out, but a better layout for the page would be greatly helpful. As mentioned, these are not updated
• Accessibility: Well done and readily available on all connected pages.

 

• Call to action on home page: They don't have a call to action on the home page.

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Name: Tuning Fork

• Visual design: Simple Home page with no immediate design until you scroll down the page a bit. The site fails to take advantage of the opening section of the home page, where it could show the restaurant's food and drink offerings. The Navigation bar has a nice tabular layout and is easy to see and intuitive. The logo is unique and cool. The website is nicely responsive, but the mobile version opening design is equally lacking in visual design until you scroll.

   

• Content: This site has more options than even Granville. The content includes a menu as expected, but also, drinks, specials, events, reservations and catering pages in addition to those Granville has. Scroll down to visions of delicous food offerings, which is perfectly done.



• Navigation: Navigation bar is well done and easy to see across the top of the page, throughout the website. The exception being the reservations page which sends you off site to a third-party reservation website. There is a back button on the offsite page that takes you back to the restuarant's website when you've completed your reservation. Very well done.
• Functionality: Every link works very well. Every page functions and despite COVID, there are no out of date elements or messages.
• Community building (social media) and outreach: All social media options are located at the edge of the navigation bar, obvious and evident. They all lead to well maintained and up to date social pages. Very well done.



• Accessibility: Here the site fails. There are no accessibility options associated with the website.
• Call to action on home page: There is no call to action on the home page

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Name: Le Petit Restaurant

• Visual design: Beautiful photograph of one of the restaurant's tables greets your eyes on the home page. No food is present, but the setting and wine glasses, together with the name of the restarant presented at the top, give the feel of exquisite french cuisine. It is clear there are more elements if you scroll. There is a message discussing their reopening as well as delivery services with a picture of a delicious food offering to complete the page. The color scheme and layout is really well done. The responsive website works well on a mobile phone and is just as inviting.

   

• Content: Le Petit has all content common to Granville, Tuning Fork and more. Menus, drinks, a full gallery, about, reservation, gift certificates and contact pages, plus, you can view their commercials right on the site! A tad cheesy, but they bring home the genuine french feel of the restaurant. The content enables the user to feel immersed in a experience as they traverse the website for information.
• Navigation: The main navigation bar is somewhat paltry at first glance, with just a menu, bar menu, venue and contact link to choose from. However, upon closer inspection, you note that there are drop downs for each entry and there you find a myriad of links to numerous pages. It may not be as intuitive as some of the others, but it is a way to pack in a lot of content links in a small space.



• Functionality: Every link works very well. Every page functions and like Tuning Fork, despite COVID, there are no out of date elements or messages. The website has actually been updated to reflect changes that have been required due to COVID.
• Community building (social media) and outreach: Here the site fails. There does not appear to be any social media links or any social outreach available on the website. They do have a 'contact us' page, but it merely provides their address and phone number.
• Accessibility: Here this site fails again. There are no accessibility options associated with the website.
• Call to action on home page: There is a clear and evident call to action on the home page. "BOOK NOW" with a link to do so, stands out in bold letters on a bright orange, boxed-shaped background. Very well done.



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Name: Mistral

• Visual design: Mistral has a beautifully designed logo, including the name of the restaurant and a short description of the food type (french) as well as the restaurant type (elegant). This sits atop a carousel of photographs of the restaurant's food offerings, dining area, event area, and bar, moving in perfect succession. You can also move the photos manually. The navigation bar is above the carousel. It is made up of off-grey, thin lettering against a white background, making it a tad difficult to read. Despite that, the color scheme and layout of the website overall is elegant and inviting. The website is responsive, but the design is a little bit crowded on a mobile phone, the hamburger menu a trifle difficult to see smothered a bit by the restaurant location information at the top.

   

• Content: Mistral's contect is a bit more bare bones than Granville, Tuning Fork and Le Petit, but generous compared to Terra E Mare. They could use additional content to increase the value of the site and give users a more engrossing experience. Nonetheless, they do provide menu, about, upcoming event menu, reservation and contact us pages.
• Navigation: As mentioned navigation bar is somewhat difficult to see due to the font and coloring against the background, however, it works well running across the top of the page throughout the site with none of the links taking you off site. Very easy navigation, so well done on that score.



• Functionality: Every link works very well. Every page functions and like Tuning Fork and Le Petit, despite COVID, there are no out of date elements or messages. The website has a pop up when you access the home page that informs the restaurant is BACK form the COVID break and gives the dining hours.
• Community building (social media) and outreach: They are lacking in this area. Mistral only advertises their facebook page at the bottom of their contact page, in a rather obscure fashion. They do offer a mailing list you can sign up for as well as a contact page where you can send a message directly. Nice touch, but they could beef up their social media outreach and place the links more prominently.
• Accessibility: Unfortunately, there are no accessibility options associated with the website.
• Call to action on home page: There is a clear and evident call to action on the home page. "MAKE YOUR RESERVATION - CLICK HERE OR CALL 818-981-6650" rests on a banner at the top of the page. Well done.