Client Restaurant: Ruen Pair
Analysis of Current Client Website
What does work? What doesn't work?
Firstly: Ruen Pair is delicious, please order their food.
Secondly:
(I keep writing and then deleting my paragraphs because I don't want to be rude... but on the other hand, what are their choices of seeing this? I'll just say it)
Their website is visually incoherent. The patterned background is distracting, the images are small, the logo could use an update, having two different slide show images of menu items is confusing and neither of them are functional (no prices, no additional info, doesn't link to rest of menu). The address and phone number are tucked away in a separate slideshow and in the "contact us" respectively-- they should be on the main page! The menu link downloads a PDF which is 1.3MB in size. The instagram and facebook accounts are linked with buttons, but not integrated into the page at all. No "about" page telling the story of who they are or what their food is like. No call to action.
When I go to a restaurant's website, it's because I'm looking for information. I always want to know at least one of the five following things:
- Where is it
- What's their phone number
- What are their hours
- What's on their menu
- How expensive is it
If all of the above conditions are met, then I'd like to see some nice glamour shots of the food, and maybe some staff recommendations, or information about specials, or some sort of mission statement or bio about the chefs, but that's all icing on the cake.
Right now, literally none of the above bulleted information points are on the main page.
I hate that!!
As far as what DOES work for this website:
I like that it's very simple and not cluttered with a lot of eye-catching nonsense. Even though the critical information isn't right up front where it should be, it's easy to figure out where to navigate to find it. There's no fussy sliding / parallax effects or animations, which I'm glad of, personally, because I'm a hater. Animations should only be there if
- the website is designed for you to play around and take your time, and giving you useful information isn't the main point or
- the animations actually enhance usability.
Analysis of 3-4 Competitor Websites
w/r/t visual design, content, “call to action” on home page, navigation, functionality, community building (social media) and any other areas of importance
Competitor 1: Jitlada
Things I like: most important info right up front: "WE ARE OPEN!" with revised and updated hours. Call to Action with a Grubhub link. Comprehensive About section. Clean white backgroud. Clean scans of menu (it'd be better if it were actual text, but this is still an improvement on Ruen Pair's current site). All the critically important content is on the main page.
Things I don't like: slow to load, information isn't presented in the appropriate order, inconsistent typefaces and overall design, kind of baggy / overstuffed, a LOT of scrolling to get to the important info.
Competitor 2: Spicy BBQ
Things I like: very clean, very clear, very contemporary & professional-looking, nice big splash photo of the food. Design is very mobile-friendly. Clickable buttons up top for "view menu" "call now" "get directions" -- after scrolling past a gallery of food photos, information is repeated down below with additional map, written-out address, & business hours. Love it. Handles all my immediate needs.
Things I don't like: A little TOO clean and bland -- kind of soulless, looks like it was spat out of a template. The dusty yellow accent color is too faded and the links don't stand out. The CTA buttons up top are too small. The customer testimonials are too wordy & dense for someone who's just skimming the mainpage to find out info; should be condensed to 1-sentence blurbs or else relegated to a below-the-fold spot. The "view menu" ... takes you to another site altogether, is laughably incomplete, and appears to be autogenerated from some database somewhere with "claim this menu" and "claim this business" links. What the heck? was this whole site just manufactured by google AI?
Competitor 3: Noshi Sushi
Not a Thai restaurant, but I like their website, so I want to use it as a reference! Also, if you go here, get the spicy tuna roll.
Things I like: Clean, clear, lots of white space, though it's actually a soft gray which is very nice on my eyeballs. Love the big red ORDER ONLINE call to action button up top. Nice image carousel with a really charming illustration of their restaurant and some very pretty food photos (though why doesn't it auto-play the slideshow?). All the critical info is on the main landing page, complete with a tip about parking. Scanned pictures AND complete text version of the menu (yes!!). All the clickable links like Info, About, News, etc. contain what they ought to and nothing more. Links to social media are noticeable but not distracting.
Things I don't like: Info on main page underneath the carousel is much too spaced out, and the info about their opening hours isn't organized well. This is more of a content problem than a design problem, but still, I'd try to tighten all the hours up and put it in a single visual block instead of making people scroll scroll scroll.
Client Goals & Target Audience
Goals
Create a client website that serves customer's informational needs quickly and efficiently by implementing 5 critical pieces of information, as listed above, directly on the landing page. Integrate menu into site in a lightweight and easily readable way instead of making customers download a 1.3MB PDF. Integrate photos from Instagram & Facebook feed into site. Reintegrate existing food photos in a way that provides useful information and converts more directly to orders. Flatten & streamline overall site design to better highlight information and imagery. Create call to action on main page.
Target Audience
Ruen Pair is (or was, before COVID-19) prized as a late-night hangout spot for younger people, between 20-30ish, because they stay open till 4am. The customer base for late-night dining is about 50/50 asian / pacific islander and white, roughly 60/40 men vs. women. I don't currently know what the lunchtime and regular dinner service audience looks like.
Project Planning
- What questions need to be answered in order to complete this project?
- What tasks do we need to complete in order to successfully design this website?
- What issues need to be solved?
- What is our schedule?
It'd be nice to know more about their customer demographics, and what dishes or menu options Ruen Pair wants to promote at different times of day, different days of the week, different times of the year, etc. I want to know if they'll need to change the content on the website often to keep it up to date, or if the content can stay pretty static.
I need to get the answers to the above questions. I think I covered the rest of what I need to do in Goals.
I don't quite get how this question is different from the previous one. I think I covered what I need to accomplish in Goals, and I covered the problems with the current website up above in Analysis of Current Client Website.
Work will be completed at the end of this class, in 5 (right?) weeks.