What Is It About Restaurant Websites? • Hacker News Board

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#21

Post by hartror » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 2:32 AM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #3

As with most things, form trumps substance when you're selling websites to a local business. They want to have a sexier website than their competitors. Their competitors all have sites with big Flash intros and cool animations and stuff. This is what your layperson cares about when viewing your portfolio; they don't care about functionality across platforms, they don't care about accessibility or immediacy of pertine…

I agree wholeheartedly. It is a lack of understanding on the part of the business owners for about what a website is FOR and a lack of interest in educating them on the part of the developers on these websites.

I'm sure this isn't an original idea but web development firms should offer a subscription package to owners. This subscription would assist them in monitoring the performance of their total web presence (not just the website which is becoming less relevant these days) and assisting them in improving it. It could certainly prove a point of difference in a saturated market especially if you got a great case study or two behind you to present to customers.

The difficulty is that site developers are just programmers and designers and not salesmen and marketers so they either don't understand or care about what I just talked about or don't know how to sell it to the business owners.

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#22

Post by hartror » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 2:37 AM UTC

Joboo wrote: post #8

I'll never understand the complaint in scenario #2. Use the device in your hand for what it was originally intended, and CALL them.

But that just negates the reason for having a website in the first place. As a business owner surely they don't want their (and their staff's) valuable time taken up fielding phone calls that could be readily solved by a half decent website. Sure it won't be the preferred method for everyone so you will still get phone calls but the cost/benifit ratio is high.

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#23

Post by dminor » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 3:32 AM UTC

waterlesscloud wrote: post #5

I can see how small, local businesses fall into the trap of all-flash, all-hard-to-actually-use. But what about a high profile, nationally known restaurant like The French Laundry. Why does their site suck so much? http://www.frenchlaundry.com/

The French Laundry could probably put up an "under construction" graphic without affecting their business in the least.

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#24

Post by drinian » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 3:40 AM UTC

My biggest complaint, among many, is that their ubiquitous Flash intros have a "skip intro" button -- inside the Flash animation. Why do I have Flashblock, again?

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#25

Post by sabat » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 3:42 AM UTC

dminor wrote: post #23

waterlesscloud wrote: post #5

I can see how small, local businesses fall into the trap of all-flash, all-hard-to-actually-use. But what about a high profile, nationally known restaurant like The French Laundry. Why does their site suck so much? http://www.frenchlaundry.com/

The French Laundry could probably put up an "under construction" graphic without affecting their business in the least.

But a restaurant of its caliber should have a good website, regardless.

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#26

Post by jff » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 5:38 AM UTC

shade wrote: post #12

Joboo wrote: post #8

I'll never understand the complaint in scenario #2. Use the device in your hand for what it was originally intended, and CALL them.

I'm deaf. How would you suggest that I do this? Seriously, I do understand the point you're making, but keep in mind that not everyone is interested in the phone portion of their smartphone, or able to make effective use of it. :)

Are there no TTS gateway apps for the Sidekick/iPhone? I know there's websites that let you type phone conversations.

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#27

Post by timdorr » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 6:55 AM UTC

cookiecaper wrote: post #3

As with most things, form trumps substance when you're selling websites to a local business. They want to have a sexier website than their competitors. Their competitors all have sites with big Flash intros and cool animations and stuff. This is what your layperson cares about when viewing your portfolio; they don't care about functionality across platforms, they don't care about accessibility or immediacy of pertine…

Actually, we've found success in converting restaurants away from Flash by touting the SEO benefits of pure HTML. Once client of ours ( http://www.bluefinatlanta.com/ ) had their site entirely in Flash (not even a PDF menu!), but showed up nowhere for "sushi bars atlanta". We redid the entire site (with a HTML food menu, thankyouverymuch) and now they're number 2. They're getting a ton more traffic (which they can also now track more effectively by having unique pages) and have totally seen the benefit. It's definitely one of our better case studies for other prospective clients.

TL;DR - You've got to sell them on the business aspects, like SEO.

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#28

Post by roundsquare » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 6:58 AM UTC

Joboo wrote: post #8

I'll never understand the complaint in scenario #2. Use the device in your hand for what it was originally intended, and CALL them.

I've never been a fan of this argument.

1) Sure, its called a phone, but thats just because at some point it was a phone. Now its a phone/browser/weak computer/video game system. The name is almost misleading.

You have a good point that its doesn't make sense to complain "I'm using tool A to do job B for which it wasn't made and it doesn't work" but thats no longer the case for many modern "phones."

2) If the restaurant can get more business by adapting to people who "use their phone incorrectly" then they might as well do that (assuming the cost/benefit works out).

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#29

Post by nitrogen » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 7:30 AM UTC

Here's a restaurant web site that I recently used when deciding where to eat with friends. While it wouldn't win any design awards, it had exactly what I needed - a menu, an image of the location, and an address.

http://www.gaborbrothers.com/

A lot of local businesses don't get my business because they don't have or want a web site, and I don't use the yellow pages. A decent web site is becoming increasingly important IMO.

Re: What Is It About Restaurant Websites?

#30

Post by chunkyslink » Mon, Mar 08, 2010, 8:33 AM UTC

Here is a restaurant website for a UK based chain that we just launched (in Dec 09).

http://giraffe.net

I feel its both attractive and functional. Its primarily supposed to be a website (i.e used from a normal web browser) but will work fine on your iphone.

There is no flash but we've used jquery extensively for 'flashiness'.

There is also prominent twitter/flickr and facebook engagement throughout.

There are menu's (web based and pdf choices), offers and locations. Try googling for 'giraffe menu' - the menu is the top hit.

We spent a while fine tuning the location finder http://giraffe.net/restaurants which uses the google API to provide 'a nearest list' functionality. Once you chosen a restaurant it will also provide you with a list of other restaurants close to your choice.

The site www.usabilitypost.com did a feature on the location finder as we've also done something cool with the location search box.

http://www.usabilitypost.com/2009/11/30/search-dropdown-hybr...

The idea behind the site is simple. Get people to the restaurants. We've had a lot of feedback that suggests that it does just that and we're quite proud of the result.