I focused on two local restaurants, Six Penn Kitchen and BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse. At first glance, both websites seem fairly similar in terms of the type of content that they provide: menus, location, about page, and some links unique to their establishment. In regards to balance, Six Penn Kitchen seems to appear more balanced in terms of layout on the homepage. The logo is in the middle with three links on either side. On BJ’s website, it isn’t as aesthetically pleasing because of the imbalance on the navigation bar. There is a location/shopping cart in red at the top right corner that throws off the look, at least for me. Looking at the unifying qualities of both websites is interesting, because of the overall quality it speaks to the user. Six Penn Kitchen does a much better job keeping in theme on every single page of their website. The color scheme is consistent throughout with the black, grey, white, and green. BJ’s is consistent for a few pages by keeping the same background and basic layout, however, when you move to the “Our Craft”, “Our Beers”, and “My Rewards” sections, they change theme and it kind of throws everything off as a user. A far as emphasis is concerned, the sites are very similar. Both sites put the most emphasis/attention on their logos by making them the largest thing with the most color at the tops of their pages. For layout, Six Penn Kitchen’s menu reads like a typical menu you would see in a restaurant. BJ’s is more of a boxy/square layout that shows the categories of food that they offer that you have to click on to see the dishes. Six Penn has a more straightforward layout that is much easier to find exactly what you’re looking for with the least amount of clicks; BJ’s is the exact opposite.
Let’s look, now, at both sites in regards to Krug’s 5 “things”:
- Both sites create a clear visual hierarchy in the way that it is clear that all tabs are at the very top of every page in the navigation bar. Each section from the navigation bar then has a certain amount of pages under that category.
- BJ’s uses more photos on their menus-almost only pictures, which is overwhelming. Six Penn Kitchen has some pictures on their homepage but there aren’t any pictures on their menus, which makes it more clear but a little boring.
- Both sites do a great job at breaking pages into clearly defined areas that makes it easy for the user to find what they are looking for. However, I think that Six Penn Kitchen does a slightly better job than this, because BJ’s has too many things that need to be clicked to get your wanted end result.
- Both sites make it very obvious what constitutes a clickable link by either highlighting specific links or making it known that its clickable when you move your mouse over the graphic (like their logos to go back to the home page).
- Six Penn Kitchen does a better job at minimizing noise by having a small amount of clicks to get to the wanted end result (typically the menu). As stated before, BJ’s has a lot of unwanted noise by creating so many subcategories within their menus.
All in all, Six Penn Kitchen did a better job than BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse at drawing in my attention. This is because of their sleek layout, minimal noise, and clear and consistent layout.