Danielle Bobish
Web Design
Prof. Ames
Review #3
The 2 websites I chose to review are Applebee’s and Texas Roadhouse. I chose these 2 because I don’t necessarily live in Pittsburgh, so I am familiar with these local restaurants through the means of their services and brand personality.
I find that both of their sites look balanced, even though they are focused on the middle of the page. The aspects that make these pages unified are their use of color, and layout. In the Applebee’s layout, they are very structured and require minimal clicking to navigate the page. Their use of color also helps create a more distinguished and unified look. The Texas roadhouse layout is similar to Applebee’s, however they have a zoom effect on images that help identify clickable links on their page. Emphasis is put on images primarily based on a scrolling gallery to give you an idea of the menu, as well as the hierarchical navigation. The layout in general of Applebee’s consists of a lot of square and rectangular shapes in nature and consists of a neutral color palette. The layout of Texas roadhouse uses an out of focus background image and then uses a lot of images as links to navigate through their page. The five important things Krug states in his chapter are clear visual hierarchy on every page, naming and graphic conventions, breaking pages into clearly defined areas, obvious clickable links and minimal noise. In these terms, I believe that Applebee’s was more successful in following a correct guideline. Applebee’s uses hierarchy navigation through its tabbed and rollover scrolls. Everything is named accordingly and has a place that fits. Unlike Texas roadhouse however, where rollover clickable images are more emphasized, Applebee’s lacks noticeable click action. Also in terms of noise, Applebee’s is more calm in a sense that it isn’t busy. Your eyes can flow across the page at a good pace without getting distracted.
In conclusion, Applebee’s is a more effective website. Good color palette, strong sense of unity, little noise, all links lead to a reasonable page. There are also a lot of extra features that help the user navigate better like a search bar, an order now roll over tab, and prices on the main page. Overall it is very inviting and fun which helps promote the atmosphere of the actual restaurant.
https://www.texasroadhouse.com/
http://www.applebees.com/?