Author: cafst259

For the final review, I found a restaurant and website named Metro Diner. They have a very similar layout to the website our group and I are making, and we have the diner theme going on as well. We may not have the exact same food, but it could definitely be considered competition. To begin, the layout of the website when clicking on is organized with a slideshow, displaying photos talking about hiring, catering options, and upcoming events. As you scroll down, delicious pictures of food are shown, specifically specials, and a few customer reviews are placed.  They all have five stars, and a thoughtful paragraph of their experience there. On to color, their theme seems to be dark grey, white, yellow, and green.  I feel like it could work for their brand, but I think that’s kind of ugly.  But if it’s their thing, it’s their thing. There is a lot of texture on site almost everywhere.  At the top of the page, the grey appears to be a concrete type of background.  The letters in the ads are neat, but have a scribbled look to them.  Moving down, it shows a white wooden background, with paint strokes in a bright yellow, with green text on top.  All of the food appears to be crispy, juicy, and fresh when examining the pictures. When looking at navigation, Metro Diner has a navi bar at the top of the page containing Home, Menus, Locations, Catering, About Us, and Careers. I feel like this is normal for a restaurant to have those.  When in mobile, there is a little tab that can be pressed where all of that information is shown.  When comparing this diner to our website, a lot of similarities can be found.  But, ours I feel like will stand out more because of a few things.  Our colors are brighter and cuter, we have delicious, unusual fusion foods that other places never would have.  Our prices are cheap, too. I think we have a pretty strong competition with Metro Diner, but I feel like we have a stronger eatery. 

For Review 3, I chose the websites for two restaurants, Burgatory and No. 9 Park.  They are both probably great places to enjoy a meal, and they seem to be expensive from their websites. To begin, I’ll start with Burgatory, the more causal of the two. When you enter the page, you are immediately greeted with images of the eatery, people having a good time, and delicious food. It places an emphasis on feeling good, and basically having a good time while you’re there, which is probably the goal for any establishment. This makes me want to go to the nearest Burgatory soon, so I assume that is what the audience will desire as well. It is a simple and easy to understand layout, with the logo placed at the top, a slideshow, and a little bit about the company underneath. The colors are muted and neutral, and nothing is too in your face. The dark brown, grey, and red tones complement each other nicely. There are links along the header with more information on close locations, an in-depth menu, and various social media platforms the restaurant is on. In the reading, Krug explains how when customers go into a store, they go through a process to find exactly what they came in there for. They also explain how that is pretty much the same for websites and on the internet, and that a smooth and easy to navigate page is a good option to go with. It is extremely important that any company, regardless if it is a restaurant or not, has a layout that a large variety of audiences can understand.

            Moving onto the next establishment, No. 9 Park, this is a bit different to the prior. We are greeted with a photo of what I am assuming to be the outside of the restaurant, and you have to scroll to see more. It is wordier than Burgatory’s and uses sweet-sounding adjectives to describe the environment in the first part. You are then shown a picture of the dining area, with glasses and silverware neatly aligned. Finally, we see information about the team, the owner, and so on. I think it is an interesting approach, and could work well with the audience to get in touch with the restaurant. The color palette is dark brown, white, and a tiffany blue. It is a well-organized layout, and there is an emphasis on the history and actual making of No. 9 Park.  The other tabs are placed at the top, with more to read pertaining to the menu and reservations. Overall, it is an informative, and neatly stylized website. 

            I feel as though both restaurants did a nice job of showing who they are, and what they can offer customers when or if they are looking to eat at one of these establishments. Nothing is out of the ordinary with them, and both pages do make you feel a certain way. But, I would have to say Burgatory is the winner between the two. Not that No. 9 Park is bad, but a few things made me not like it as much. First, there are no pictures of food on their website. The whole reason for a restaurant is to eat, and I feel like it is not smart to not incorporate any of the products onto the page that would probably be viewed the most by consumers. People might go out of their way to find the menu, but wouldn’t you want to be greeted with a good-looking meal? Next, there are a lot of words on the site. Not that it is a negative thing, but it seems as though it is more of a report about the restaurant than the actual eatery. It is nice to include the behind the scenes stuff about the place on the page, but I would suggest maybe putting that in the tabs above, and replacing that space with the best-selling dish or popular meal. I did not read everything that popped up when I entered the site, and I’m not sure that the majority would either. But to conclude, I do believe Burgatory and No. 9 Park have strong websites that really show the audience what they are about. With a few tweaks, it could be even better though!

For the single page website, I chose “Frustration”.  Firstly, because it is an eye-catching title, and it is exactly the opposite of what everyone tries to avoid when making a website.  But, it also caught my attention with the elements it employs.  At first glance, the site could very much be seen as bare, simple, and plain, yet I feel like that is what makes it beautiful, and easy to work with.  No one wants to fiddle with a gaudy website that has an extreme number of buttons, colors, and nothing that flows together.  Frustration is not that at all.  When entering the page, you are greeted with a blank slate of white, some greys, and a few pops of black.  A very minimal color palette, but I think it works fantastically.  It uses easy-to-read type, and it is directly in the middle of the screen.  To navigate, the user must scroll down, and you’ll be shown sleek, basic images of hands holding an empty white box, stating that empty is the new full.  The texture seems glossy and polished. Nothing is very loud, or tries to capture your attention with anything crazy.  It appears smooth and airy.  The site is easy to scan because of the simplicity it has overall, from the colors, to font, to the photos.  I do believe the website is designed very well, and caters to people who prefer concise layouts.  It is a modern page, and that is what most people would probably be looking for when creating a site, especially in this age.  Overall, the website “Frustration” is well-organized, minimalistic landing page and could work with practically anything the designer wanted. It gets the job done in a very clean and effective manner.

I chose the site Neiman Marcus to review.  This is a very expensive and luxurious shopping page adorned with thousands of beautiful items, including designer clothing, handbags, shoes, and much more. I personally love purchasing skincare from here, and always check out the newest moisturizers, serums, and cleansers from time to time. When arriving to the homepage, I am greeted with copious amounts of photos, all of beautiful people wearing beautiful things.  The black and white aesthetic creates a minimal atmosphere, very much contrasting the pricey items. Expensive haute couture pieces descend down the screen. After clicking the beauty tab, I am somehow shown the most expensive items first, obviously done intentionally. I decided to place the extravagant La Prairie Cellular Cream Platinum Rare, which costs $1,245.00 into my cart.  The site successfully made me want to purchase this product by using convincing language, and telling me how my life will be changed after using the cream.  The site is organized and well put together, but a flaw I experienced is that it is almost too hard to navigate and find products. There are countless items and it can be hard to find the exact one you were looking for, and so many tabs under each other.  In the reading, it shows the difference between a thinking and non-thinking site, and I feel that Neiman Marcus is a non-thinking website.  It does not make me confused or question anything, and I know exactly what I am clicking on.  In the book, it also mentions how much of a hurry we are all in, and it definitely shows you the product in a straight-forward manner, and nothing is in the way or distracting in the slighest. Overall, the luxury website Neiman Marcus has done a lovely job at showcasing top designer items and making the consumer feel the need to have it. I personally recommend shopping on the site, and would gladly spend my day browsing through the navigable pages anytime.