Long time no see!

 

Been working on this for the last couple of days, from design to WordPress Development.

Pretty much all done now, just looking for some constructive feedback.

 

http://www.peduarte.com/lidocafe/

 

Please let me know what you think.

text is too small.

 

it's a little bit stark - a bit too black on white to achieve any sort of ambiance other than with the image slider

 

also the page title is still the wordpress one

Edited October 28, 201114 yr by davep

Yep, I would increase text size and lower the height of the image used on the main page. Maybe you should reposition the booking widget near the footer to somewhere more visible.

 

Edit: You could also lower the transparency of the sub-menu items on the main menu.

Edited October 28, 201114 yr by Rob Aid

It's bland but it "breathes" ok. I think you just need to inject some non-templateness into it.

i quite like images although first one is a 3d render i guess.

It makes me want to eat. Or maybe i just want to eat now.. xD

 

Anyhow.. id start with reducing amount of text to by 70% and see how it goes.

I wouldn't take any notice of the people calling it 'stark'. They clearly haven't looked at any images on the site of the business in question. If you do it becomes pretty clear that Plain white/Black Logo text and light blue highlights is a branding they already have. If you showed them anything else they wouldn't have recognised it as their brand and because of that there is pretty much nothing design wise I would change.

 

UX wise is a different story though.

 

1.) The booking system needs pride of place. You have a link in the header but it just jumps down to that area on the main page. People won't know what the hell is going on. Give it its own page and add in a big clear CTA button to move people to it.

 

1.) Put the address somewhere prominent. Phone and Email is one thing but the single most important piece information is whether I am 5,10 or 6,000 miles away from the place. The contact page is good but location isn't really a method of communication.

 

2.) Image format menu's are never a good idea. People want to copy/paste them into emails, to tell friends, to have family members pick. Whatever. Make it easy for people to talk about the food.

 

3.) I think you need a clearer separation between the information/brochure part of the site and the blog/personal opinion part. I find there are two types of people of visit business sites. People who want information and don't want to be bothered by what the company thinks about Thursdays and the opposite of them. People who want to build relationships, talk to staff, know about your suppliers and already know where you are/what you sell. They like to keep separate camps and I always think a site should accomodate that.

 

Don't clutter one area with stuff from the other. (News headlines on the main page for example)

Keep naming consistant to keep separation clear. (The link says News, the sidebar says 'Amazing Blog')

Have some kind of clear visual cue that it is now an opinion area. Something friendly that signifies it is the business' outlet. A header that says 'Our Chef Blogs' or 'Talk with the Management'. Something like that.

 

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I would also say that point 3 only matters if the business is fully intending to have a proper blog/participate on Twitter/facebook/whatever. People can spot a blog intended to drive traffic from a mile away. It doesn't endear your users to you. It looks weak and half arsed. Same with Twitter, people generally don't follow Twitter accounts that are just automatically posting links. Either use it to it's full potential or don't bother.

 

From their Twitter feed it looks like they do enjoy interacting, so just make sure they'll blog well too. Otherwise just take that section out. Better not to have a blog than to have one that the business so obviously doesn't care about.

Edited November 7, 201114 yr by Renaissance-Design

Hey Glowbridge, appreciate your comment.

You're 100% about them already having their branding colour. This is the previous site

 

Thanks for the tips on UX too.

I must admit to hate all the scrolling down to see the content on every page. Have you thought of making the images as a full size background instead, thereby allowing the content to be immediately seen?

I don't get the vibe that this is a cafe website. It feels like a blog than anything else.

I think the site looks great mate - exactly as this type of site should look in my opinion.

 

The things I don't like are probably the two most important elements of the site. The booking system and the menu. I echo what Glowbridge says about the menu and you can tell the booking system is an add on. I'm guessing the booking system thing is compatible with the back end management system/diary etc but personally I'd prefer to just get people to call to book than put that up.

 

By the way I actually like the map on the contact us page I personally think its useful.

 

Oh and I love how the old sites main headline is 'Welcome to The Lido Cafe’s new website'

I'm here again with my old browser IE8 lol I guess your link to js.html5 isn't correct

 

Overall nice site but the menus ugly

By the way website is good and I like it! Well done!

Edited November 8, 201114 yr by Renaissance-Design
Removing quote as quoted post has been moved.

I've moved all off-topic posts here.