The restaurant website I chose to rework is Pine and Crane
The website for Pine and Crane is actually very simple. It covers the important items such as menu, photos of the food they serve, links to socials and a contact form. I think the elements of the website that can be re-designed are the menu portion and how the food is showcased on the website. There are basic structural elements of this website which could include items such as parallax scrolling and a more elegant responsive mobile website. The first step would be to create wireframes for the website and find the best layout for the new version of the website.
The competitor websites I would like to point out are Tocaya Organica, Alimento and Speranza.
The visual design for this website is clean and minimal which makes it absolutley the easisest website to navigate. There is a call-to-action on the homepage of the website to order new dishes. The website has a clean and clear navigation which makes it very intuitive for the user. The website is super easy to use and doesn't really foucs on community building since it is a restaurant website. The use case for community building for a restaurant should be links to Instagram and other appropriate social platforms. Overall if I were going to build a restaurant website I would model it after Tocaya Organica. The website has great content which is what I would like to use for the Pine and Crane redesign.
The visual design for this website again is clean and simple but the header slider is elegant. There is a call-to-action on the homepage of the website to reserve a table via their system. The website is intuitive for the user and simple to use with the navigation split into About, Menu, Contact, Press, Gift Cards, and Order Delivery. This is by far my favorite restuarant website of these three because it is just so striking. They have great images and the menu is so easy to read/navigate. I think what I would take from this website for Pine and Crane is the great curation of content. If you want to reach a certain demographic you have to put together a website that they will want to visit after hearing about the word of mouth. This website does that very well for Alimento.
The most appealing part of the visual design for the Speranza website is that it is all on one page. I think this one pager design is what I would build out for the Pine and Crane redesign. There is no menu, substantial photos or anything of real consequence. The one part of this I want to take into account is the lack of the complexities so many website find today including more complictated layouts. Sometimes simple really is best.
The schedule for this website build is the duration of this class. The Pine and Crane restaurant website needs to be re-designed so it can attract new customers and showcase some of their new dishes. The owners of the restaurant want to feature a new set of dishes using their website and social media. They also want to streamline the reservation process so it is easier for people to get tables prior to the restaurant.
