Last month we finished working on a small side project for a well known country pub & restaurant. Now I love side projects, they take me back to the early days where the stress of corresponding concepts between 3 different teams whilst keeping client side project managers happy was just a dream. With more time to think, this project got us looking at the importance of an online presence in the hospitality and catering industry. Now trip advisor is no secret and admittedly most country pubs do rake in the reviews, however they don’t need to do anything here it is just free advertising assuming they are getting it right in the first place. So what else can be done, Facebook, Google + and a website that reflects the business can all help drive new customers towards the business. Developing a name and a level of trust that sites such as trip advisor can make or destroy is so important.
So I got speaking to some owners and managers of local country pubs & restaurants I notice a common ignorance and lack of thought towards having an online presence. The assumption that Facebook isn’t going to attract the ‘right type of customer’ and that the website ‘just works’ is usually the type of response I got. More than ever Facebook is being used by people over the age of 21, in fact it is the younger generation that these business don’t need to attract that are using Facebook less and less.
With all that said I suppose I had better move back to the topic of this article. Having a website is all well and good, but having a website that reflects the physical business is going to develop trust and confidence, and it is trust that will be the deciding factor as to whether the potential client chooses your restaurant or the one 2 miles down the road. Its something online based businesses don’t have to worry about, as they don’t tend to have physical premises that are open to the public. However it amazes us how many websites for shops, restaurant and events never actually reflect the look of the business.
So lets take a look at how we can create a web interface that will enhance the user experience and reflect the physical business. First thing, this isn’t going to be cheap for the business but on the other hand it doesn’t necessarily have to cost more than £2-3k. One of the first aspects of the interface that we looked at was the navigation and we just thought why? Why have so many pages and such baffling menu’s when the real reason people are visiting the site is to find opening times, location and maybe a menu. We designed an interface that would display all the information the viewer would expect to find, on just one page. This also allows for more a natural flow to viewing the site, and makes for a more intuitive experience on a mobile browser.
Using specifically chosen images and carefully designed food menus, combined with a scrolling parallax effect to enforce the motion of moving from one section of the restaurant to another. The user can experience the establishment in a more genuine way, giving a sense of having been there after viewing the site.
We have enforced this aspect of reality into the entire scroll of the front-page, we have used additional pages for extended information such as a details of where to stay and the about section. However, we aren’t 100% happy with the flow from the front scroll to the extended pages and will be working on this further.
