Author: Blake Pawelec

For my last review, I chose Épicerie Boulud which is located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at Broadway and 64th Street. This catering business/restaurant would definitely become competition with my group’s bistro, The Eurobean, because we serve similar foods and desserts. Our restaurant only serves breakfast and lunch while Épicerie Boulud breakfast, lunch, dinner, as well as alcohol. I definitely believe that The Eurobean would still do very well even though we just serve breakfast and lunch. When I first went to Épicerie Boulud, it was beautifully designed from the menus and display cases to the tissue paper used for the baked goods. Therefore, I was expecting the same setup for their website. That was not the case. Their website completely focuses on their catering business than their restaurant business. The homepage is clean, sharp, and modern but I was looking for more. On their navigation bar, they only show “Catering, Gift Boxes, Giftcards, Cookbooks & More, Corporate Gifts, and Locations.” I was expecting them to have at least an in-store menu which was disappointing. The dropdown menu for their catering section is kind of confusing since there is “Passover Catering” and “Corporate Catering.” Once you choose an option, it lists each food by breakfast, lunch, receptions, etc. One nice thing is that each different food has it’s own picture. In our website, we decided to have one picture as the background to simply showcase the food as well as keeping the navigation simple. Épicerie Boulud‘s color scheme is nice but I feel that The Eurobean’s is more eye catching and pops. Our website is simply and straight to the point while giving potential customers a fulling experience. Overall, I believe that our bistro will not have a problem with Épicerie Boulud in sales and customer competition. With our different assortment of foods from multiple countries and our fast “in & out” service, I feel that we, The Eurobean, will stand out and become a great place for customers to feel at home and eat delicious soups, sandwiches, and desserts while drinking our fresh coffee and iced beverages. By the words of Julia Childs, “People who love to eat are always the best people.“

For this website review, I chose Six Penn Kitchen and one of my personal favorite restaurants, The Interchange Lounge. As I explored each restaurant’s page, I could tell that Six Penn Kitchen definitely has a more professional and sophisticated website then Interchange Lounge. That is because of the bigger customer base as well as location. While Six Penn is located in the heart of Pittsburgh, the Interchange Lounge is located off of Route 51 on a side road. Six Penn’s website is balanced, clean, and sharp. The layout is great and definitely emphasizes the food as well as the location. The Interchange Lounge does a decent job at explaining what their restaurant is all about but it needs to be polished just a bit. According to Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” a website should follow these five important concepts to make sure users see and understand the website as best as possible:

• Creating a clear visual hierarchy on every page

• Taking advantaged of conventions (both naming and graphic)

• Breaking pages into clear defined areas

• Making it obvious what constitutes a clickable link

• Minimizing noise

I believe that Six Penn Kitchen follow each concept well, where as the Interchange Lounge follows some but not all.

Six Penn Kitchen’s website it truly eye-catching with the graphics, photographs, typography, etc. One can definitely see the sense of hierarchy on the home page as well as every other page. Every page is unique and showcases it’s proper meaning. The noise level is extremely low which is fantastic for users. The nice white ribbon banner on the top is an awesome way of showing what it clickable link and what is not. The Interchange Lounge on the other hand needs some work. There really isn’t a sense of hierarchy or emphasis on any page. The images of the food need to be the prominent thing that users see and they just missed the mark. The layout is bland and does not distinguish each page. Every page has the same style and feels archaic. It is definitely a shame that the Interchange logo is not even clickable. The couple things they did manage to do alright is making the different selections clickable and stand out while minimizing noise.

Overall, Six Penn Kitchen’s website is great, stylish, and easy to explore while the Interchange Lounge has some ways to go to be of the same caliber as some of the most recognized restaurants in the Pittsburgh area.

For my second review, I chose one of my favorite websites Letterboxd. This is basically the “Facebook” for film critics and film lovers (like myself). And at the end of last year, they published a year-end wrap-up for the films released in 2015 with an enormous one page website. At first glance, I could already tell that it was going to be an awesome experience, especially with the big “2015” in bright vibrant colors and having film stills in each number. The main color scheme is a very dark blue, with accents of light orange, green, and blue. I believe that this color scheme works well because the bright colors complement the dark blue to create a really stylish look. I liked how they tell the user to navigate the one page site by using the arrow keys. They also give a little illustration to accompany the directions. The one thing that bugs me is that I feel that it is too small. They should make it one or two points bigger. I feel that the navigation and layout is spot on. According to Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, a website should have these attributes: usefulness, learnability, memorability, effectiveness, efficiency, desirability, and delightfulness. All of these attributes were executed in Letterboxd’s 2015 Wrap-Up one page site. When one navigates down the page, he or she is delivered with a small clip, title, poster, and short summary of the film in a smooth and clean look. Then, if one continues, they are given a quote and small movie poster from the film above. This format continues throughout the website and also gives interesting facts, lists top film posters as well as top directors, actors and actresses. The finale of this wonderful splendor is the “25 Best of 2015 Video Countdown” that summarizes the “Top 25 Films of 2015” in an incredible video montage that really showcases each film. This one page site truly delivers an amazing experience for anyone who loves film or is even interested in a specific title. Letterboxd did a great job with showcasing a huge amount of content in an organized, clean, sleek, as well as interactive manner.

 

Take a look for yourself and experience the awesomeness!

Link: http://letterboxd.com/2015/

For my first website review, I decided on one of the biggest shopping sites in the world, Amazon.com. I shop on Amazon frequently because I am currently an Amazon Prime member. Who can beat free 2-day shipping and 20% off newly released video games? Upon first glance, Amazon’s site seems clean and organized. The header is pretty straight forward with the search bar, login, cart, etc. But what I really like about the header is that, under the Amazon logo, there is the spot that has “Shop by Department”. Once one moves their cursor over, all of the different departments appear below. Then once one moves to a specific department, the list then expands to give the buyer a more in-depth look at the department. I believe that this is much better than listing every single department on the header. This gives space for the other selections such as “Today’s Deals” and “Shopping History” making the header less congested for a shopping site that sells so many different things. The organization also continues down the homepage with things such as “Related to Items You’ve Viewed,” “More Items to Consider,” and the most interesting, “Inspired by Your Browsing History.” After a customer searches throughout the site, Amazon will calculate and generate more items that are similar to items that he or she recently looked at. I truly wonder what that algorithm is! Another nice feature is once one makes an Amazon account, one can use “1-Click Ordering” after placing an item in his or her cart. With this feature, Amazon will do all of the work with sending information such as one’s address and payment. So after one click, it has been purchased and being processed for shipment. Overall, Amazon makes shopping simple, easy, and quick for customers to get what they want.

Next is the color scheme. Amazon’s works very well though out the site. They really utilize the complementary colors of blue and orange with white and black accents. It is stylish, modern, and eye catching. Even the advertisements follow a similar fashion.

Furthermore, I believe that Amazon is truly a great shopping site that caters to everyone. I have always had a pleasant experience with Amazon and I feel that their website goes above and beyond for their customers.