31–40 of 124 posts
Bad web designers tend to target restaurants (and medical practitioners) because they have a much easier time selling bad design to them.
I'm working on this site right now, and I understand your concerns because I feel them myself. I'm hoping I can bridge the gap between dining and diner. :)
(Please excuse the design, since I'm the only developer :P)
My expectation of quality is inversely correlated to the quality of their website. When I see a restaurant website that is "good", it makes me thing "chain. corporate. bland. boring."
Because restaurant owners are barely figuring out what email is. How often do you go to restaurant websites vs. actual restaurants (not including Yelp or Google maps)? Truth is, they just don't matter. The cost of creating a website, even a $500 design over a CMS doesn't justify the cost. Also, a small business restaurant owner won't know how to operate a CMS. They just figured out email, remember? Worse, is that web…
Also note that movie websites have the same problem. For mostly the same reasons, though the organizations involved and cash transactions are much larger...
All I want to see are the menu and the hours of operation.
One reason for menus in PDF is because the menus may change frequently, and a PDF is easy to create from their actual print menus. It doesn't seem like a big deal to update both an InDesign layout and a website, but if different people do those two things, then it's quite likely a mistake will be made, so it's smart just to use the already proofed version.
All I want to see are the menu and the hours of operation.
Word. I want the hours, location, phone number, and menu. All in a format I can copy & paste into my email to convince my friends to go. I rarely get any of that at a restaurant's web site. No wonder that it's easier to google/yelp it and use their listings.
Huh. I just realized that I have a strange association between restaurants and their websites. My expectation of quality is inversely correlated to the quality of their website. When I see a restaurant website that is "good", it makes me thing "chain. corporate. bland. boring."
http://www.onebigmenu.com I'm working on this site right now, and I understand your concerns because I feel them myself. I'm hoping I can bridge the gap between dining and diner. :) (Please excuse the design, since I'm the only developer :P)
The individual restaurant pages are very clean and informative compared to what you might see on a restaurant website. The only things missing are restaurant hours and pictures of food items.