Can you tell good restaurant web design from bad? I bet you know a poorly designed site when you see one, but have you ever wondered why some sites are engaging and others leave you cold?

In our series on 21^st century website design for restaurants we’re going to take the mystery out of what it takes to make a website awesome!

It Starts with the Menu

Designing a website for your restaurant is a lot like creating your menu. It takes careful planning and execution to get it just right! Like your menu, impressive web design is a pinch of art and a dash of science. Throw in a whole lot of knowledge, love, and creative work and you have a winning design!

Mise en Place

The first step in web design is gathering everything we’ll need in one place. All of these go into the preparation necessary prior to beginning the actual design of the site that best represents your restaurant.

• Photos
• Brand colors
• Your menu
• Type of cuisine
• Style of restaurant
• Target clientele
• Hours of operation
• Location
• Personality

The last point on this list is a significant detail in the design process. Just like your restaurant, your site should be a reflection of your food and your personality. This is critical, because your website sets the patron’s expectations of what they’ll experience when they walk through your door.

Firing the Design

Now we’re cooking! Once we understand what makes your restaurant unique, it’s time to put all of the pieces together. Graphic artists create a layout based on your brand colors, photos, restaurant style and type of cuisine. They determine just the right combination of color, text, and photo placement to accurately reflect the style and character of your eatery.

Plating Your Web Project

Putting all of the graphic art into a cohesive web design is like plating an entree. Once the design is ready the graphic artist works with web designers and programmers to build your restaurant’s custom designed site. They convert all of the design elements into internet friendly code. They also place buttons, navigation menus, and contact or online ordering forms in just the right spots to make them easy to find when potential customers visit your page.

Next Up

In our next article we’ll discuss how to select the right company to design your restaurant web site.