Author: ESchmidt

Whether it’s a business or a restaurant, there is going to be competition, and every industry needs to be able to stand out from its competitors to succeed. In terms of restaurants, there are many different ways for them to stand out. It could be providing only the best quality meals, creating a one of a kind experience, or even just giving providing customers someplace with a unique and wholesome atmosphere. The point is that every successful restaurant has something to make it stand out in the crowd. This goes beyond just the restaurant itself and into how they market themselves. A website for a restaurant also needs to be able to communicate to the viewer what they might expect before even going there.  

One restaurant that I look at as a possible competitor for my own would be the Square Cafe located in South Braddock Ave. in Pittsburgh, PA. Square Cafe is a small cafe that specializes in breakfast and lunch. They enjoy using their restaurant to help show off the artworks of local artists with a style that is simple and well organized. As such, their own website is just as simple, as well as being quick and easy to navigate. For anyone first visiting the website, the overall style is what sets it apart from its competitors. The homepage is presented in a standard display with a header at the top that is present on all pages, a brief summary with images telling about the cafe, and additional information at the bottom. The design of not just the homepage but the entire restaurant is shown with a bright, flowing, colors. The whole website is displayed with a colorful backyard picket fence and blue sky that I would imagine is inspired by Van Gogh. The colors and style give off a fun, welcoming experience that the cafe wants to provide to its guests.  From there, the menu is the third option in the header. It is quick and easy to find, and the layout is a simple display that shows off their seasonal menu and the drink menu. Both the website and its menus are visually fluid and smooth, providing a stylized version of the artwork they display to the overall design. I feel that the impression they’re trying to make is a fun, inviting atmosphere for anyone new or old.

The restaurant that my group and I created is called EYEPOP, it is a breakfast dinner/cafe with an overall theme that draws inspiration from the pop art movement. The website we’ve created greatly reflects this inspiration, with an overall display, designs, and colors drawn from different artists and their artworks. The layout is simple but eye catching, all while being easy to navigate. From the homepage, there is a single display in the style of pop art by Andy Warhol. Each individual panel leads to another page of the site. Each page is unique and has a style influenced by various artists. The menu is a simple click away from any page, from the header at the top of each page but the homepage where it is the first option displayed. With a more distinct theme to tie both the restaurant and website together, I feel our website has a little more to offer compared to Square Cafe’s. While Square Cafe’s design & layout provide a unique identity, in its entirety, it seems like multiple ideas just arbitrarily put together. With my group’s restaurant, I feel our website has a better unifying theme and overall concept. While Square Cafe shows off local artists in their restaurant, they would have to update their website to match the current display of the restaurant. This in turn results in more work overall for them. Whereas, EYEPOP is influenced definitely by the pop-art movement, it allows for enough influence from various artists and styles when it comes to designing the website, without being too limiting or restricting. Of course I don’t believe out website by any means perfect, and if anything I’d say we might have “too much of a good thing”. While each page provides various information along with graphics and drastic color palettes, it might be a little too chaotic for someone first visiting the website. However, aside from the little things, I’m proud of the site my group and I have created.
It’s not until you begin to create your own site that you start to understand how much thought, time, and effort is put into creating something as “simple” as a website. Both Square Cafe and EYEPOP are great websites that compliment their restaurant. Square Cafe isn’t only good competitor for our website, but it is also a good source of inspiration for EYEPOP. They both strongly serve the purpose of providing a early look at what each restaurant has to offer in terms of food, design, layout, and atmosphere. It never hurts to study the work of others for the chance to discover a new perspective, understanding, or idea that can help you develop your own creations.

What some might consider the most important aspect of of a website is the overall user interface, and after having read chapter six of “Don’t make me think” and looking over various websites, I can clearly see as to why that is. No matter the website, who ever searches one needs to be able to understand how to navigate it. Having a website layout that is too vague could have the viewer spending to much of their time attempting to find what their looking for. On the other hand, a website that breaks down everything it has to offer means that the developer has to spend an unnecessary amount of time creating it, and the viewer has to dig through link after link to reach their goal. While examining multiple websites, the two that caught my attention in terms of understanding the site were for the restaurants No. 9 Park, in Boston, MA. and the Cheesecake Factory. Both these sites have a simple style which allows for easy navigation and understanding.

What these two sites had that made them both stand out from other websites was their subtle layout and visuals. In terms of No. 9 Park, it has a clean, sophisticated look that matches the experience and service someone would get if they were there. From entering the site, the homepage tells about the restaurant and its location, staff, and cuisine. From the homepage, the contents are clearly labeled across the top and all the different opinions the restaurant provides are shown, and clicking them brings you to a page in similar design to the homepage. One of the things a liked about No. 9’s website was the well balanced and simplicity it had to every page. Each page is designed to show only the important information without any unnecessary distraction. For example, the basic layout of any page can described as such, it begins with the title of whatever the page holds, which paired with a image is used to divide the the headings from the following text and whatever other information that page may have. The simple layout of dividing the page as you scroll makes for easy navigation and great layout. However, one issue I have with the site lies in its lack of emphasis. What I mean in this case is how little the site does to show off the restaurants entire purpose for existence, its food. While it may not seem like a big deal, I felt that while even thought the large pictures used to divide up each section are eye-catching, when it comes down to looking through the various menus, there isn’t any way to show emphasis exactly what you would get. While overall aesthetic of the website works great for the restaurant, and makes it simple to navigate, it just feels like you’re not seeing every aspect it has to offer.

In terms of layout and simplicity, The Cheesecake Factory was one of the best websites I explored. Upon entering the site, the homepage consists entirely of a single, non-scrolling page. With a few scrolling pictures detailing their latest information, that’s all there is to the homepage. Now assuming the next thing someone wanted to see was the menu, across the top of the page are the links to other pages, so it’s very simple to find the menu. What I like about the menu is how it’s presented. Instead of bring brought to another page with row of items and information, what they decided to do is to have a small window appear which contains information leading to their various appetizers, entrees, and desserts. Upon finding what you want, or what sounds appealing to you, you can click on it and will be show a picture and details which describe it. Personally, I like this approach to the menu better than No. 9 Park for one reason, while No. 9 doesn’t have a ridiculous amount of pages by any means, the way The Cheesecake Factory presents theirs in a more organized and understandable format makes for a smooth transition from one item to the next. However, another more opinionated reason I like The Cheesecake Factory’s menu is because they’ve provided a picture to go along with each menu item. I feel this gives the viewer something more to entice them and have them further explore. Aside from the menu, the overall layout of the site works, everything is clearly laid out across the top and makes sense to someone anyone new to the site. There’s a simple aesthetic that remains professional, while still seeming amusing and modern. The Cheesecake Factory has a great website that provides all the needed information a restaurant should have at first glance and anything else is a simple click away.                   

I would consider the overall layout and design of these two sites to be a good resource and a standard for anyone looking to design a website for their own restaurant. (or any company for that matter.) Of course, like anyone would have, there are some changes I would think to make for each, but in this case, I don’t think my ideas have anything to do with how someone would interact with or come to understand either website. For an example, for No. 9 Park, I would simply think to dial back the sophistication aspect of it and introduce a more modern vibe, similar to the of the Cheesecake Factory. (As well as more pictures of course.) Not saying that both websites are perfect, but when it comes to designing a site for any company, it needs to function in a way that tells something about the company while also providing all the necessary information. With that in mind, I think both No. 9 Park and The Cheesecake Factory are each an excellent example of websites that demonstrating layout, emphasis, and unity for anyone looking into creating their own.

Having looked through the various single page websites, the one that caught my eye and interested me the most was “2018 in Music”. What got my attention to the website was actually it’s simplicity. The site’s main purpose is to display and show off the albums that made 2018 a great year for music.

When you enter the site, the first thing you will see in big, bold font is the title of the website “2018 in Music”. Written in black text with a plain white background it’s not much to look at. From there, the only way to scroll through to from let to right. To which it is simply looking at the albums and listening to a simple track provided. It’s the attention to each popular album individually that makes this website stand out. Not how many visual bells and whistles there is to see as you scroll though. The main purpose of this website is to display the music and album covers that have been made for each album and that’s it.

Once you find an album that you like or seems interesting to you, you can click on it and the page will shift to a new display. This new display will show only that album, along with a quote, a short description, and provide a video clip of one song from the album, now with the webpage moving from top to bottom. That’s pretty much all there is to the website, simple and clean. The only thing else is at the end of the webpage where you can find the authors credits and link to their personal page.

So as I’ve stated, what I like and what makes this single web page work, is its simplicity. The purpose of it and reason why it was created was to show of some of the popular albums there were in 2018. I can see if this was about almost any other topic, there would need to be a serious overhaul in design and visual interaction. However, because this is about music and the album art that accompanies it, I feel that the simplicity helps to bring the viewers focus to each individual piece. Similar to art in an art gallery, this website is a simple white background in which multiple different albums with their artwork is spread across. Any little color, shape, or intricate effect would take the attention away from that and the website would lose its intended purpose.

With this perspective in mind, there are a few changes or addition I would make to the website, mostly when you select an album to view. Once an album is selected there is only the before mentioned details that are shown. With only one album being seen, that could be when more of a design aspect comes into play. Shapes, colors, patterns, and other visuals effects could work with the album cover to turn each display into its own “piece”. Perhaps the background could change color to compliment the color(s) in the album.  Another thing could be that various shapes in different patterns could appears that could go along with the style of music. If the genre is something like heavy metal or rap then the shapes could be more geometric and hard. If it’s like jazz or funk then there could be freeform and smooth shapes. One other minor issue I had with the site was its horizontal scrolling. Not a major problem by any means, but I noticed that the scroll wheel on a mouse is much less response when horizontal scrolling versus vertical scrolling. There’s not much I can think of to improve it except to make the page scroll vertically, thought having the page move horizontally is something that makes it unique. Though there is a scroll bar provided to solve any issue (but what fun is that?)

Overall, I think “2018 in Music” is a great single page website. Maybe not super creative by any means, but it does do a great job in letting the albums speak for themselves. Of course it could use a few design elements here and there and perhaps a slightly better way to scroll though. However,  if this website is an example of one thing, it goes to show that sometimes a simple design can work just as well, if not better, than something so complex.

After having read Don’t Make Me Think and gaining a better understanding of how eCommerce go about designing their websites. A specific site I chose to examine was Barnes & Noble. This was my choice because, while their stores are made to be simple and easy to find what you’re looking for, I wanted to see just how much of a challenge it would be to find a book when there isn’t the limitation that a store would have.

For an item like a book, there are many different ways to search for what you are looking for. Two main topics people might search under is typically by genre or by its author. The book I was looking for “Down and out in the Magic Kingdom” is a Science Fiction book by the author Cory Doctorow. From the Homepage, it is very simple to start a search for what you’re looking for. Barnes & Noble provides a long header of subjects that shoppers might be looking for. The first one is simply called “Books” and hovering over it will show a drop down menu with a ludicrous number of options to choose from. The two main subjects mentioned earlier to search from are typically genre or author, and the website does provide a detailed list when choosing from either one of the two. However, if someone is to choose genre, they are then taken to a page which shows only a small list of what’s new and popular, and if what they are looking for is not there, they then must play a kind of guessing game to describe the exact book based on various lists of search specifications along the side of the screen. I know for myself that I personally don’t want to take the time to try and describe whatever it is I’m looking for, especially if it is something that is new to me, and also having to hope that the system can successfully find it.

What I found to be an easier way is to search by author, obviously, assuming you know who the author is. When searching by author, you are shown a small list of current popular authors which is followed by an extensive list of authors in alphabetical order by last name. Once you find the author you’re looking for, you’re then taken to a page that shows all the books they’ve written and that the store has. From there is was easy to find the book I was looking for, and once you’ve successfully found whatever it is you’re looking for, you can click on a big blue button reading “Add to cart” and finish or continue shopping.

However, while I believe with some time anyone could find what they’re looking for, there are some changes I would make to create a simpler experience. One thing I would do is to simplify the key details to search from. What I mean by that is how whenever you click on what you want to search by, be it genre, author, or anything else, if what you’re looking for isn’t there then you have to begin this unnecessary guessing game with descriptors that seem to broad to even seem helpful. By providing simple key details to describe various novels instead of by price, formats, and vague and oddly specific subject would help to narrow the search for the exact book. Another change I would make would be to the homepage. The first thing people are made to see is the large display banner that advertises the latest and most popular books, toy, etc. available. While the key topics to search from are almost hidden between that and the top of the page. I would think to create big display icons for each topic and present them in place of the banner. This would help customers start their search faster and hopefully minimise the amount of time trying to find a product. Keeping things simple and understandable is important especially when looking for something specific like a certain book.          

Overall, I feel the Barnes & Noble has a pretty decent website, but only if you know exactly what you’re looking for. If your trying to go based on the suggested search options then you might have a harder time finding whatever it is, not impossible, but certainly not easy. Some options are easier than others, like searching by author, while some, like searching by genre, make me want to try my hand again at the dewey decimal system at my local library. While there is clearly room for improvement, Barnes & Noble has a good foundation, and with a little tweaking can become everyone’s first stop when shopping for a novel.