Since I am working on a milkshake / cereal fusion restaurant, I looked into http://www.cerealboxinc.com and https://www.playabowls.com. The Cereal Box’s website was very bright and colorful which is how I imagine cereal. Off of the homepage, there are seven tabs for different pages like “Events”, “Menu”, and “Location/Hours”. As you scroll through the home page, the images stay in fixed positions but the information rolls over it. This makes the page more interesting since the images stay in place and then disappear rather than having every object move while scrolling. These photos are also very important to the page. This allows viewers and customers to check out what the restaurant looks like and what types of food to expect. Poor quality photos can turn away customers so it is important to look professional and trustworthy. Menu design is also very critical for restaurants. Again, customers can be turned away if they do not find the menu to look aesthetically pleasing or professional. The Cereal Box’s menu really matches the aesthetic of the food and restaurant. They used bright colors yet again and have a very playful logo. Just looking at the layout and colors makes me want to read what is on it and visit the restaurant. Overall, the website is very organized and clean.
Next, I looked into the website for Playa Bowls. Right away, the logo and homepage described the mood/audience for the restaurant. The bright colors and “beachy” logo match perfectly for a place that serves smoothie bowls and fruit. Right away I was more impressed with their website than The Cereal Box’s. The photographs of the food were a higher quality and very clean. This automatically makes the food they are trying to sell look very appetizing. The homepage had a few graphics on the sides of the page that add to the mood. My favorite part of this page was a gif that changed to show all of the different smoothie bowls they sell. Instead of having multiple photos, they made it almost like a stop motion video. Just like the other website, there were different tabs for different pages. The menu was made up of different photos. This showed the variations of bowls, ingredients, and the smoothies. One interactive element on this page was shown when I clicked on the photos. At the top of the menu, the different bases for a smoothie bowl are listed. If you decide which one you are interested in, you can click it and the website will scroll to that exact location for more information. This makes things very easy to find. These options are also listed at the top of the page and work the same way.
Overall, I’ve noticed that layout, color, and photography are very important when it comes to websites for restaurants. The layout and color scheme should match the appearance and mood of the restaurant. Since I was looking at a cereal and smoothie bowls, the designs were very modern, sleek, and bright. More expensive/fancy restaurants tend to have dark and organic color schemes along with cleaner layouts.