I have chosen the restaurant Eleven’s website (Elevenck.com). Their layout is simple, clean and uncluttered. I only have two complaints: The navigation bar gets a little weird when the window is resized, and the layout for the photo gallery is inconvenient which I will get into more detail later. Navigation overall is easy for the user; very clear and self explanatory. The color of the site is easy on the eyes; the minimal, neutral color scheme includes compatible colors. As Chapter 2 in The Principles of Beautiful Web Design describes the color orange is used to psychologically induce an energetic feeling in the onlooker, I feel it is definitely doing the job here. It is light and fun, even tho darker tones are used. Texture is seen at the top and the bottom of every page of the website. It’s just the right amount and the texture is not too busy.
Being honest I’m a bit concerned about how my website will stand out. I definitely encountered some difficulties with JQuery effects on images. However, I feel the overall design is similar. There is a minimal color scheme with compatible colors, good quality photos of food and of other featured artwork. The navigational bars seem to be the same, so I feel better in not missing anything imperative.
In particular, my restaurant page encourages interaction outside of the website; on social media. The photo gallery on Eleven.com has a nice large slide show, but then has extremely large images in one single row continuing down the page. Personally, I do not find this attractive. Other than that detail, I feel the actual concept of the Pittsburgh themes restaurant is what will put it apart from an upscale place like Eleven.