Trevor Young
Ames
4/18/2018
Review 4
I reviewed http://southsidebbqcompany.com a local food truck and brick and mortar restaurant located in Pittsburgh Pa. The South Side BBQ Company focuses on Barbeque food.
My initial thoughts on the website is that it appears rather amateur. Certain aspects of the layout and design feel very outdated. As I loaded up the site I had immediate memories of the way the web looked in the mid 2000’s. My first gripe would be the obnoxious fire jpg used as the background. Yes, I understand they are a BBQ truck and therefore use flame to cook their food. However the background picture is obnoxious and cheap looking. A quick fix would be to lower the opacity on the background in an attempt to make the page look less harsh.
In regards to the layout of the site I find it to be pretty average, some thing work well here and some are just confusing. There are multipole pages that all serve their function well. An About page with pictures an info. A calendar page that lists where the truck will be and included a link to the location on google maps which is nice. All the information is here but it’s formatting is strange at time. The “Menu page is just a list of the food items written in text in centered font. This is jarring and the text is the same size and style as the majority of the rest of the pages text. Another clear example of poor layout is the home page, where a large portion of the top third of the screen is blank. The company name and email address are typed in the top left corner but much too small in size. To the right of this is the address and phone number of the restaurant and truck in smallish type. Then three jpgs take up a chunk of the screen. Two QR codes for mobile apps and a company logo. While the QR codes and mobile apps are nice to have, placing them at the top of the page seems to be a mistake in my eyes.
The color scheme is unified throughout, sort of a rustic red and dullish yellow. And while I personally don’t enjoy these colors all the texts and attributes are viewable. The color is lacking in some areas as the page begins to feel more like a sea of white. Perhaps the strongest section of the site is where color is used most adequately and that is the calendar page. Where the red on yellow text is readable and looks complimentary. There is unfourtnetly little to no use of texture on the site. The companies logo uses this nice rustic texture that feels very vintage and fits the theme of homecooked BBQ but the rest of the site is very flat in it’s design. There is one nice drop shadow, again on the calandar page, that works well but the majority of the site seem to be lacking in this area.
While aesthetically the site in below average the navigation is adequate. The nav bar is not much of a bar as it is floating words in space, but they all link correctly to the correct page. The site is easily navigable where it be in it’s calendar phase of it’s contact us page where the user is given a forum to fill out.
In comparison to our website (TheBastardChild.com) I feel that are site will be much more modern in it’s design. Our site features a more up to date color palate as well as amore contemporary look and feel.
Overall the site is lacking in a lot of areas but it is serviceable. It can be rather ugly to be frank and at times can be difficult to use but overall It is very much a “local webpage” in it’s feel. This is a page about local food after all and it feels like they are not interested in the “polish” that may come from a more professional design.