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Strategy and Scope Narratives

Strategy and Scope Narratives

Strategy

Jerome is abruptly stopped on his morning commute when he realizes he is lacking gasoline. Annoyed, he rolls his eyes. If only his car could’ve reminded him to get gas yesterday. Now he has to go out of his way to stop at a gas station. The only one he can think of on his regular commute is expensive and not the best, but it’ll have to do. Pulling into the station, Jerome realizes only one pump takes cards. Checking his wallet, there’s only one dollar bill… not enough, so he’s forced to use his card. Parking at the pump, the screen prompts him for a rewards card. Checking his wallet he realizes he left it at home, he has so many of those cards that they don’t fit in his wallet so he takes them out. Cursing at himself, he realizes he’s not going to be saving money on gas today. Now sufficiently annoyed and just trying to get gas quickly, he enters his card into the card reader but it’s not taking it. Aggravated at the station, Jerome is forced to go inside to pay. His spirits sink lower as he sees the terribly long line. Without his coffee, he doesn’t want to deal with anyone let alone a long line of people and an incompetent cashier. It’s taking terribly long and Jerome is going to be late for work. Playing on his phone while waiting in line, Jerome wishes there was an app to solve all of his problems.

 

Scope

Thankfully for Jerome, we’ve created an app that will save all of his problems! Here’s how his life would’ve been with our app: While walking out of work, Jerome checks his phone to see a notification from our app, he’s low on gas and should fill up before work tomorrow. He opens the app and checks to see which station on his route is the cheapest, a Sheetz just a couple blocks away has good prices so he decides to go there. Entering in his prepay information and selecting his Sheetz reward card option on the app, he’s ready to go. Pulling up to a pump, he enters in a code and verifies it on the app, the prepay option saves him from having to pull out any cards. After he’s done filling his tank, he slides into the driver’s seat and receives two notifications from the app. The first prompts him to put back on his gas cap, he must have forgotten. Fixing his error, he checks the other notification which tells him that he’s earned $2.00 in rewards on the app and he has enough Sheetz points to get a free hot dog. Jerome moves his car away from the pump and parks in front of Sheetz, entering to order his free food. When asked for his Sheetz card, he’s able to pull up everything on our app making his wallet lighter and life happier. Jerome pulls out of Sheetz, munching on his hot dog and happy that he won’t have to deal with getting gas in the morning.

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Strategy and Scope for App

Strategy
As a group, we decided to go with the idea of creating an app for our client Jerome Smith, who was clearly having a bad day. Jerome is 32 years old, who works in the Finance Department at PNC, he commutes from Sewickley everyday and always needs a cup of coffee when he gets up. He is also a very frugal individual. As a creator, our goal is to create a gas station app that would be able to connect to every gas station for convenient payments while providing roadside services. Because Jerome is a busy and frugal man, we hope that our app would allow Jerome to be able to access perks of saving money using this app while being able to go about his busy life without having to wait in line at gas stations. Not only would Jerome be able to access the convenience of paying, he would also be able to experience of being on time from the roadside alerts.

Scope
Our gas station app had many features and functions that will meet our goals. In our app we added in the function to add gas station membership cards (GetGo, Sheetz, BP, etc…) so that our users would be able to access any gas station with just one app and earn rewards to save money on gas. In addition to adding membership cards, our app users are also able to add their preferred payment to the app and the app will be able to automatically charge the card when they get gas. Not only would our app be able to add membership and payment cards, our app users are also able to compare gas prices near their location. This will allow our app users the ability to save some money when they need to get gas.
Due to the fact that our users are probably busy people, we also included notifications of when the gas tank is low. This will allow user’s ahead of time of when they should get gas before they forget that they don’t have enough gas to get to work the next day and end up late. We also added the feature of ordering gas ahead of time or prepay at a specific pump to save our users some time so if they are on their way to somewhere they would just have to pump and go. We also took the consideration of adding an alert to the users to put their gas cap back on because people can forget to do that all the time. In additions to alerts, our app users will also be able to receive roadside alerts for traffics, closed roads, and accidents. This feature would allow our users to know ahead of time that they should probably go a different route.

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Gas App Narrative: Why Me?!

Have you ever had a morning where everything seems to be going wrong? By “wrong” I mean “why is my life like this?” kind of wrong. Wake up late. No hot water. Forgot to put away the laundry, which means your clothes are all wrinkled and there’s no time to iron them. Gotta forget about doing your hair or trying to look presentable, because that train left an hour ago when you were still sleeping (a better time). Don’t even think about grabbing coffee. Your manager is already judging you enough for how you look. Maybe just grab the basic coffee from the nice lady at the front desk- I think her name is Jan? Janine? Jenna? Great woman.

 

So, you make it out the front door and get in the car. You have an “oh my god why me?!” moment when you remember that you were running low on gas yesterday. But then you remember- you had an app take care of that. On your way out of the office yesterday your phone went off letting you know that your gas tank was running low. So you login on the app with your thumbprint and see that you have 8 miles until empty and then check the prices at the closest gas stations. When you find the one with the best deal that will offer you the most reward points, you make your way to the station. As you pull in you scan the pump and pay from the app (a nice feature for someone who doesn’t want to deal with the general public after a long day of acting like you care at work). Once the tank is filled, you get another notification on your app saying that you received enough points for a free cup of coffee.

 

Back to reality and you realize that maybe Jan can keep her coffee today. The tank is filled and you have just enough time to grab that free coffee and make it to work on time. Sure, your manager is still looking at your sideways for the wrinkled clothes, but you’re alert and on time and the day can only get better from here.

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Scope vs Strategy

Our app is being designed to help a potential user, Jerome, more efficiently put gas in his car on his way to work. During the process of developing this app, the creative team discussed that not only was the “big picture” to make his morning better, but we wanted the app to inform users on where and how to save their money at different gas stations, create a user-friendly experience for each app user, avoid having to see so many people for one small process, as well as give them security and accessibility. In doing so, there were a lot of different tools and features we wanted the app to possess.

We imagine the app to allow the user to connect to their device like Apple wallet and allow the user to connect all of his/her membership cards to any gas station they use to be stored within the app. This eliminates the need to carrying dozens of cards in their wallet. The app would then be able to compare prices for gas within in a certain location radius that the user has selected. Once the station was selected, the user can then order their gas ahead of time and have the pump ready to pump gas for you when you arrive there; the amount of gas you need and the payment would already be programmed into this order as well. The more you use the app, the more rewards you get through the app’s awards program. The programs also tie into store-specific rewards programs that allow you to earn specific things from each station once you collect a certain amount of points. The app also alerts your car when gas is low and tells you if you forgot to put the gas cap back on before you leave the pump. On a more technical note, the app comes with a support feature that allows users to troubleshoot any of their problems or concerns. It is also protected via password or thumbprint so no one can steal your card information or charge you for gas that you aren’t getting.

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Week 1 Responses

What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (Chapter 3)

  • Apple’s goal is previewing all the latest gadgets trying to grab the user’s attention. While doing so the user’s become an existing user and they could also navigate to their designated tab such as Macbooks or IPhones, they want both new users and existing users to find use for the website. Another feature they allow new or existing users to do is navigating to the support tab in case they have questions on the product or assistance with a malfunction.

What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (Chapter 4: Functional Specifications, Content Requirements an Prioritizing Requirements)

  • Facebook is meant to be a site for people to connect with friends and families. The website allows one to share posts, images, or memories with one another. On the Facebook wall, users are presented with recent shared images, posts, and ads from different sites.
  • When signing up on Facebook, you are asked to insert your first and last name, email, birthday, and gender.

What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (Chapter 5: Information Architecture)

  • Hierarchial – family tree
  • Matrix – clothing websites
  • Organic – wikipedia
  • Sequential – a textbook

What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (Chapter 6)

  • On the Huffington Post index page, the entire page is navigation while there are a few links to content.
  • On the Google index page, majority of the page is content and no navigation.
  • On the Wikipedia index page, there is no navigation just content.
  • On the Etsy index page, there is a little bit more navigation than content.

How does http://landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (Chapter 7: Follow the eye)

  • Landor guides the reader’s eye by giving the user a guided tour, there are very few options its just a straight scroll up and down. The website is trying to use as little distractions as possible so that the user has an easier time navigating through the website. They also use very bright colors like yellow, to really grab the user’s attention on what is important. The most important or most recent post is of course the first image you see on the page.
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Week 1 Response

What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook?

To me, it seems that apples website tries to get new products on the website first, while making other products accessible with a lot of information to view.

For example, when you first get to their web page, the first thing you see is a minimalistic ad for their iPhone 7, that just says “iPhone, This is 7.” with a black and gray iPhone and a gold and rose gold colored ones peaking out of the corners. This information is the first thing you see, and it lets you know they have a new product right away.

If a user has just purchased a macbook, they can easily find the MacBook page, and it shows a tab where you can view mac specs and “find the best Mac for you.” A student buying their first MacBook can find necessary information and easily compare models to find a computer to best serve their needs.

What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? 

The functional specifications of Facebook’s wall, to me, is to be a home base for the website, with scrolling available to look through new posts by the user’s friends on the site. This helps to let the user connect with other users through shared content. Also, available are links to messages, pages, groups, games, and other links to explore different areas of the website.

What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. 

The four architectural approaches are hierarchical, matrix, organic, and sequential structures.

Hierarchical structure is made up of nodes that have a “parent/child” relationship with other nodes. The child nodes represent narrower concepts within the broader category that is the parent node. And example of a hierarchical structure is family trees, classification trees (like the classification of living things), and other ways to sort needs.

A matrix structure is a structure that allows the user to move between the different nodes along two or more dimensions. According to the book, matrix structures can accommodate different needs of users, for example, browsing products by different categories. An example of matrix structures would be where structure in a company have dual reporting relationships, like between manager and product manager.

An organic structure is one that doesn’t attempt to follow any consistent pattern. The nodes are connected through a case by case basis and are useful for exploring a set of topics whose relationship is unclear or evolving. An example of an organic structure would be mind mapping as a use of brainstorming.

A sequential structure is one that is a flow of language that follows an order. the book calls this structure the most familiar one to most of us and the use of this structure is better for smaller scale structures like, for example, articles and instructional material.

What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy?

It seemed to me the almost 100% of the Huffington Post home pages navigation. While there are titles with blips about the articles, the majority of those are links to content.

Google is the same way, as it is used as a tool to search for content.

Wikipedia is less so a navigational tool, as it’s index page has full content on it. The home page has a featured article that you can read on the same page without the need to redirect you.

Etsy is more of a shopping site, showing you clothing and other content for sale. The information is there right away but for more you are redirected to the products information page, where you can read reviews, comment, or buy the product.

How does http://landor.com guide the readers’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? 

This website guides the eye downward and through the content, with a few stops along the way to redirect you to content and information about the company.  By leading the eye downwards in a sequential order through examples of their work and articles, they help control where the user is looking and what they have to look at.

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Week 1 Q&A Response

  • The goal of Apple’s website is to be a hub for all things related to their products. It’s a great resource for a potential customer that wants to gather information on products, a current customer interested in the latest information on their products, and also offers support to current customers having an issue with an Apple product. A customer who has just purchased their first MacBook will have all of their needs met on this website. The navigational bar is very clear and at the top of the page. This customer would find the most use out of the Support page, as the Mac page is aimed at potential customers interested in learning more about the product. From their, the customer can enter in any questions they have about their new MacBook. If they need more help than the support page and support communities can provide, the website also has the option to chat with a representative either online or on the phone. Overall, the website is very helpful to any type of customer!
  • Functional specifications are typically typed up in one big document that details what the programmers want to be included on their site. Facebook, for example, has a search bar to look up friends/pages/events, drop down bars showing your notifications/friend requests/private messages, a home button, a left navigational bar with shortcuts to your popular pages, a place for you to update your status, the wall itself which shows your friend’s and liked page’s posts, a sidebar for easy access to messaging, and details on a page if you have one. The programmers wanted to make sure that you had easy access to everything you wanted to do while on Facebook. This allows people to quickly find what they want, making the experience more enjoyable and making the user have a more positive outlook toward the site.
  • The four architectural approaches to information structure are hierarchical, matrix, organic, and sequential. The easiest example of a hierarchical structure is software. Software uses a parent/child relationship that is found in the hierarchical structure. The matrix structure can be found in websites like Amazon or some clothing store like H&M that allows you to browse by color, size, or price. Organic structures, which don’t follow any consistent patterns, are good for some educational and entertainment sites which allow users to have a free-form exploration but make it difficult for them to reliably find their way back. Lastly, sequential structures are the most popular offline. This structure is similar to how we view books, articles, and audio and can be found in online articles, or anything on a smaller scale.
  • The majority of the Huffington Post, Etsy, Google, and Wikipedia pages are navigation. News sites like the Huffington Post are relying on you clicking on their articles, that’s how they make their money and that’s the point of their business, to provide information. So they list a bunch of links to all of their articles, hoping one will catch your eye and you’ll click on it. Marketplaces like Etsy are heavy in navigation because they want you to click on a product and purchase it. Informational and search engine sites also have a lot of navigation because they want all of the information you want to be just a click away so you’ll like them and keep coming back.
  • Landor has a beautifully executed, rectangular, and asymmetrical design. The limited color use allows the user to focus on what’s important, and the color also guides your eyes to where the designers want to lead you. Having their navigation tucked behind a hamburger menu also keeps the viewer’s eyes on the information they want them to know and they can decide later what they’d like to do with it. The clean cut, rectangular design makes the site clear in its intentions and doesn’t distract from the message.
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The Element of User Experience Q&A

What are the goals of Apple’s website? How does Apple’s website address the needs of a user who has just purchased their first MacBook? (Chapter 3)

  • The goals of Apple’s website is to showcase their products and explain to users everything that an Apple product can help them do. Apple likes to show their consumers that it isn’t that hard and they are user friendly, especially if they want to create/interact with content.
  • Once the user clicks on the Macbook that they have purchased, they have access to every detail they could need or want to know about their new device. Apple provides written and visual information about the technology itself as well as the interactability of the device. If the user has any questions, there is also a section of the website where they can find answers or contact Apple Support.

What are the functional specifications of Facebook’s wall? If you are not on Facebook what are the specs for the signup page? (Chapter 4: Functional Specifications, Content Requirements and Prioritizing Requirements)

  • I have a Facebook account but I never use it. From the interactions I have had with the website and app I feel that Facebook has a major drive for user generated content. By this, I mean that Facebook’s main function is to give every user the same tools to create, share, and show interest in different organizations or subjects. Facebook provides users with a “status” and a “wall” to provide information to their “friends” and interact with each other. Facebook even further developed their “Like” button to a “reaction” button so that they could show more emotion and exactly what they were feeling regarding a post. From my experience (or lack there of), Facebook is more of a platform with everything set up to be used. It also has ads which are meant to engage users and potentially interact with them. The ads are also geared towards each individual user’s account based on their likes and interests and searches. This function makes it possible for Facebook to learn about each user. All of these details are functional specifications that the makers of Facebook knew were critical to the success of their website/app.

 

What are four architectural approaches to information structure? Find one example of each. (Chapter 5: Information Architecture)

  • Hierarchal
    • www.bjsrestaurants.com, or other restaurant pages alike, have a navigation bar with links that drop down from the menu to offer more options and paths. The links in the drop downs are related to the parent link but offer more information.
  • Matrix
    • When shopping online, I may narrow my search for dresses by color, size, cut, brand, and fabric. This allows me to search for several different things at once to help narrow my search because I have more that one need asking to be met all at once.
  • Organic
    • This one is confusing me a little bit because I am having a hard time finding examples. I think that a good example of an organic structure would be buzzfeed.com. Any link you click on leads to a completely new page with information only related to the link you just clicked but nothing relating to your previous searches/clicks. Everything seems a bit random and without much structure, but I think some more examples would be a big help in clearing this up for me.
  • Sequential
    • Book or article–meant to be read in a specific order so it is given in a specific order. I’m not completely positive about this example, but something like an online test could qualify as sequential. There is a specific order that the user is directed to take and you cannot move on until you have completely the first section provided.

 

What percentage of The Huffington Post index page is navigation, and what percentage is content? What about Google, Wikipedia, and Etsy? (Chapter 6)

  • The Huffington Post
    • Going off of the index page, about 98% of the page is navigation. The only content that I see is from the headlines within the links.
  • Google
    • For this index page- which I’m assuming is just the search bar and logo along with the links to gmail accounts/spin offs- it is all navigation. The only thing that I can think of that would be considered content is the Google symbol itself. This is because they sometimes have art featured or special links within the logo that would be considered content more than navigation (or maybe an alternate/creative way of navigating).
  • Wikipedia
    • This index page is probably 99% navigation besides the small blurb that says who Wikipedia is hosted by towards the bottom of the page.
  • Etsy
    • Etsy seems to have a lot more content because the links are all within their ads/stock photos. This is tricky though, for me at least, because I’m not sure of it should be considered content or navigation since the goal of the content is to be clicked to navigate to something else. Since there is more content visible on this page, I want to say it’s close to 60% content, 40% navigation (even though I feel like those numbers could flip flop).

 

How does http://landor.com guide the reader’s’ eyes and focus their attention on what is important? (Chapter 7: Follow the eye )

  • This website makes it so that the user can only see one visual and relating text at once. This makes it easy for the user to stay focused on what Landor wants them to be focused on. Everyone reads from left to right, so when the text is on the left, it allows the reader to receive an explanation first and then move on to the visual. Sometimes there is only text or only a visual, which only intensifies the users focus on that one piece of information.
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Response Questions to Elements of the User Experience

  • Apple’s website serves as both an informational outlet for potential customers to do more research on Apple’s products and software as well as a way for current Apple product users to troubleshoot any problems they may be having with their devices. According to “Elements of the User Experience” by Jesse James Garrett, user needs are important. If a new Mac owner needs help setting up their device or needs assistance on how certain features work, Apple’s website breaks down step by step how to fix the problem. Each device Apple offers has it’s own tab on the homepage which allows users to easily navigate the page to find what information they need. Apple also lets their customers have the option of getting help from an Apple professional straight from their website.
  • Facebook’s wall showcase a particular user’s profile picture and general information (education, relationship status, birthday, number of friends, etc.). It also shows what and when the user posts statuses or pictures, shares an article, video, or picture with their friends. The wall is also a platform for other users to post on to send that particular person a public message. The wall is in sequential order and has a scrolling function that allows users to scroll through a person’s activity throughout the week, month, and even year.
  • Four types of Architectural Approaches:
    • Hierarchy – tgifridays.com (The homepage has options to take you to several different options such as lunch, dinner, and catering. Each of those links then has their own page which take you into the more specific features of that particular section of the website.)
    • Matrix – target.com (When searching for products, the user is able to specify exactly what they are looking for by color, size, quantity, etc., and the website narrows the search for you to make it easier to find the products you want.)
    • Organic – perezhilton.com (A famous blogger, Perez Hilton formats his webpage so his users can scroll down the page and read article after article, but users have to click all over the place if they are searching for a very specific topic. This, in return, may make it hard to find the same article more than once.) 
    • Sequential – pinterest.com (Pinterest allows its users to simply scroll freely down the webpage to look at and pin anything they want to their board. It’s very easy to go back and forth between pages if need be but it doesn’t take you all over the place.) 
  • Huffington Post’s index page is about 10 percent content and 90 percent navigation. The homepage has a navigation bar that will take you basically anywhere on the website as well as tabs that take you to all of their social media pages. It also is filled with pictures and link that take you to all of the articles on the website. This part of the index is also part of the content of the website. Since there are so many articles listed on the homepage, it covers a lot of the recent content on their site. Google on the other hand, is 100 percent navigation. There is no set place that the website will take you; it all depends on what the user wants to search for and what he/she needs. Wikipedia is probably close to 99 percent navigation besides the small amount of text that states who Wikipedia is sponsored by and so forth. Etsy is definitely a content heavy website: 70 percent content and 30 percent navigation. Since most of the content is visible once the user does one singular search, the navigation doesn’t take up most of the surface. These numbers, though, could be interchangeable because the navigation could be related to the content.
  • Landor.com has a scrolling feature that focuses on specific aspect at a time. Once the user has read one section of the website and scrolls down, the section previous begins disappear slowly and the new one slowly begins to appear where the old one once was. Once the scroll is complete, the portion of the website that wishes to be active becomes perfectly clear. This makes the website easy to navigate through without having to click all over the place to find things.
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Review #4 – Sumo Maya Mexican Asian Fusion

In this final review, I will be going over the website design and its effectiveness of the Mexican-Asian fusion restaurant, Sumo Maya. To start off, the site is very bright and welcoming when it first loads up. Along with a lot of the sites that I have reviewed in the past, the color scheme is white with pink and orange accents. So many organizations base their websites on a white with accents color scheme nowadays and this is because it has a modern look and it is easy on the eye.

The layout of the site is very blocky but in a good way. The blockiness keeps everything ordered and professional, which is why it works so well. The only complaint that I have about the layout is that when scrolling down the page the pictures and white backgrounds go over the top of each other. To me, this is kind of bothersome because it does not look natural. It is nothing too big, but it is enough to cause me to be bothered by it. Other than that, I think the layout works well with the pictures and information being separated into different parts as you scroll down the page.

The site presents a very comforting and smooth texture. The font used is not rough or rugged, but smooth. Also, the white background keeps it smooth and comfortable as well. The site is also easy to navigate as the tabs to each page of the site are at the very top and are easy to notice. On each page when scrolling down, all of the information needed to be found will be there.

With my group’s project, we took a different approach. Our site is drastically different from Sumo Maya because we have a darker theme and we have kind of steered away from the typical modern site layout. I think that our site will stand out because it is unique and does not follow along with the status quo of web design today. Using darker shades of colors, it already sets us apart from a lot of sites that restaurants have. Overall I think our theme and layout will stand out amongst others.

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Review 4

Our group decided to join Mexican and Chinese cuisine together to make a fusion restaurant called “Panda Loca.” In order to get inspired and also to take a look at what kinds of restaurants we could potentially be competing with, we looked at and analyzed websites for restaurants such a Mad Mex, Kiyoshi Bistro, TGI Friday’s, and Olive Garden. The one website, though, that could ultimately be one of our competition restaurants was Mad Mex. (https://www.madmex.com)

Looking at the layout of their website, it is very plain. Their background is a solid color and does not make it very exciting to look at. The content of the website is centered in the middle of the page with a navigation bar, a cover photo, and a logo for the restaurant. The text is very simple, but there is a lot of it on a majority of the pages as your navigate through the website. The homepage does good job of creating a “site identity and mission,” one of the main things Steven Krug talked about in Chapter 7 of his book; it is very laid-back and gives visitors a sense of the restaurant’s atmosphere.

The colors used throughout the website are very warm. The use of deep burgundy, gold, green, and white all work very well alongside one another and good a job of complimenting one another. This scheme, as defined by The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, is an analogous color scheme; the colors are not the same, but they all work together to make the page look cohesive. I do not think this website has much texture to it. Texture, as defined by The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, is anything that gives a distinctive appearance or feel to the surface of a design or object. Mad Mex’s website is solely designed of solid colors and pictures that have no additional pigment, pattern, or texture to make them stand out in any way. On a positive note, the website is very easy to navigate and allows users to find anything and go to any tab using the fully functioning navigation bar on the top of the page.

Since the content on the website is very bland, it is hard to read through since there is so much text in such a little space. A lot of people get bored and don’t feel like rummaging and reading through long paragraphs at text to get to the point. A lot of sites choose to use bold, large headings and short sentences to not only keep visitors interested but to make sure space is being utilized and is even. Being that all of the text is also going straight up and down the page, it is sometimes easy to get lost in the words and forget about what you were originally trying to find or read.

Panda Loca’s website combines accents and colors of both Mexican and Chinese cultures. Our background uses texture by incorporating bamboo in the website’s background. We use light, neutral tan colors and accent our most important features with yellow, black, red, and white. Each page that the navigation bar takes you to a new page that maintains the overall tone and atmosphere of our restaurant but also adds variety and makes the viewer want to look at the every different page. Our overall vibe is more laid-back and fun compared to that of other websites. The Panda logo on the top of every page adds a comedic effect and keeps the viewer interested. We have tabs in our navigation bar for every occasion/customer need and we overall do a better job of representing our company compared to others.

 

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Review #4: Restaurant Comparison

A possible contender for our restaurant, The Woking Taco, is Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe. Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe is located in Southside in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This restaurant is competition for The Woking Taco because it is in the same general location. Also, the two restaurants have have similar brand qualities when it comes to appeal, audience, and overall tone as they are a more edgy/quirky themed restaurant with a unique name.

 

For Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe’s website, it is quite simple. It is a one page site with very little information offered at first glance. There are links to the different menus that they offer and a link to apply for a position. They have a link for directions and to their social media accounts. This layout makes navigation tricky. This page feel less engaging and harder to locate the information/answer that you are seeking; it takes a bit more digging. The colors are consistent on the homepage. The darker colors with the bright green adds a fun element to it but keeps it clean. The background, wooden panels with drawings of bicycle/sports related logos, adds a bit of texture to the page. All of these elements, however, are lost when you click on the menu links. The theme is not as strongly represented on the other pages, which causes some disconnect when switching from homepage to linked menus.
When comparing Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe’s website to our site for The Woking Taco, it is clear that The Woking Taco is more cohesive across all pages of the site. The Woking Taco’s website is consistent in overall design with special regards to color and layout. The links and the information that they hold are easily navigated. This is the most important aspect of our site for The Woking Taco that stands out against the website for Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe. This is because a user is more likely to stay on a sight when it is extremely easy for them to find what they are looking for. Not only does the Woking Taco offer easy navigation on our website, it also offers a pleasing and sensible design and layout for a restaurant. Having the colors cohesive throughout all links within the website will stand out against our competition’s websites.   

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Review 4: Comparing Doblé Dragon with Ellen’s Stardust

I chose to compare my final website Doblé Dragon with the website for the restaurant: Ellen’s Stardust which is located in New York City.  I chose to compare these websites because they both are restaurants that focus on the experience of being there.  Doblé Dragon is geared towards an alternative younger group of people.  It has quite a dark theme and could be considered “goth” in its style.  Ellen’s Stardust is a family restaurant that is popular for the performances the staff do because they are all people working while trying to find a job on Broadway.

Beginning with Ellen’s Stardust, the homepage is set up in a very simple manner, the nav bar is located on the left side of the screen and there are several photos covering the home page.  The photos depict the different activities that occur at the restaurant.  It is somewhat confusing because little blurbs of information pop up when the cursor moves over the image making you think it’s clickable.  The nav bar is set up in an easy manner.  The different links to the pages are clear leaving zero hesitation when clicking on a page.  The gallery page doesn’t link to anything so I don’t know if there is something wrong with the website at the moment but that’s the only page not working.  Everything else is set up in a clean manner.  When moving through the pages, there is a good mixture of images and type.  There isn’t a lot of type making it very easy to take in the information.  Images are used a lot to help assist the reader take in information.   Their use of type stays consistent throughout the website except for the menu.  But every other page uses the same font and font size to differentiate between headings and blocks of information.  Every page has the navigation bar on the left which contains links to all of the pages of the website while also including the logo and links to their social media pages.  The website is predominately white, allowing the images to bring color to the website.  This website overall is created in a clean manner that makes it very easy to use.

Comparing Doblé Dragon’s website, the homepage is also created in a very simple manner.  The only items contained are the logo, hours, nav bar, and location with google maps.  The nav bar is set up in three different pages with a sub navigation on the menu page.  When reading the nav bar, the page titled “our people” could possibly be slightly confusing because it doesn’t have a clearly named title.  The style overall is very consistent with limited images and spaced out type.  We kept the information light on the website as to not overwhelm the user.  When clicking the menu, there is a sub navigation menu that breaks up the menu into the different types of food or drinks.  This was done to make it very easy for people to find what they are looking for.  Both of these websites have very simple designs with few different pages.  They both have limited text use to make it easier to read as well.

While both restaurants focus on the experience that will happen when you visit it, Doblé Dragon focuses more on the people who work at the restaurant.  In addition, the Doblé Dragon website has a strong style to it that matches what the atmosphere would feel like when at the restaurant.  Ellen’s Stardust says that it has a retro style within the restaurant itself but has very little to represent that in the website.  I believe that is a major draw back because if the viewer isn’t captured by the appearance of the website they might not be interested enough to read about it.  So not giving a feeling of your restaurant in the appearance of the website can make people click away if they feel they don’t have the time to find out if it would be a restaurant that interests them.

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Website Review #4 – P.F. Chang’s

For Review number 4 I chose to do P.F. Chang’s as a possible competitor website for our fusion restaurant. They are considered an Asian/Chinese fusion restaurant that has been popular for a while now.  P.F. Chang’s website is actually pretty similar to the way that we are making our website as far as the layout and overall style of the site goes.  They have a main navigation bar with menus, reservations, rewards, etc. Then they feature almost a “block” style design where there are different tiles with information on them. The overall look and feel of the website is very simple, clean, and to the point which in my opinion is very important for a restaurant website as people are basically going to be doing two things- ordering or looking at the menu and that should be as simple as possible. The home page itself is built small so that there is not a lot of scrolling involved. Instead you are clicking on links to travel to the other pages. The navigation is simple and very easy to do with everything being in one central location. In my opinion the website could use a bit more, whether it was some added color or maybe something that makes the sight feel more interactive. It does its job for what it is needed for but I feel as if something more could be added to it just to make the experience of the website a little more interesting to browse.

As for comparing our website project to P.F. Chang’s I think we are going for a very similar general look and navigation style but I feel as if we are adding a bit more interactivity to our website. Its not just going to be plain with pictures of our food and simple things. We are featuring a convenient online ordering system right on our home page so that customers don’t need to search for anything and can just quickly order from our website and head out to pick up their food. I think this is a strong idea because it is straight to the point for the customer and also includes a bit more interactivity and ease for the customer when navigating our website. We certainly do not want to overdue it so that there is just a bunch of junk that is thrown all over our website but something that makes sense and works well for our customers.

 

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Review 4

For this assignment, I looked at the website for Noodlebox (http://www.noodlebox.ca/). This restaurant is looked at as competition to our website due to the Asian-styled food mixed with another element, westernization.

The website at first glance seems like a one-page website, then moves on to being a multi-page website when you click on the last two tabs. This layout is concerning and very startling when you don’t expect it. The other concerning element is the delivery menu at the top of the screen. Every time the page is changed the last thing to load is this delivery option, causing the whole screen to jerk down for a moment. This web page has some pluses when it comes to layout also. The screen’s menu scrolls with the rest of the website, following you on the way down. Picture galleries can be found on the homepage and they flow well with the rest of the page.

The whole website has a very dark black color with white text and red elements. The black makes the words pop but very difficult to read after a while. The name of the restaurant also is put over a photo and is very hard to read at first glance. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you have to scroll all the way up in order to get back up. If someone wants to find something on this website, they most likely can.

The website is very professional and compared to ours looks like it has had a lot of time put into it over a long period of time. The amount of information put on each page is overwhelming at times. The darkness is unsettling on Noodlebox’s website and ours is more welcoming comparatively. Our website has a more uniform feel when it comes to navigation and that is what stands out amongst the two.