Effective web design for a restaurant or cafe

22 April, 2010

Web design for the food industry is generally a little more creative, fun, and funky than a lot of other industries. Image is very important in this game, so getting a website design right is critical.

Appeal to your intended clientele

You can never please all of the people all of the time, but you can please some of them. As with all good web designs, a clear targeted audience needs to be defined and designed for accordingly.

An expensive high end restaurant won’t have an a-frame outside of the door saying “Free mash and OJ with your lobster!” It’s pretty clear that this kind of approach would drive away most if not all of their intended clientele. In the same way, there a certain things on a website that should and shouldn’t be there.

Reflect your food and / or location

Dining out is a very personal thing where most people will judge according to their tastes, experience and perception. If you can catch someone’s attention and interest by theming your website to match your restaurant and food, then they will be happy as they walk through your doors and see and feel the same things.

If you’ve given your restaurant’s website the look and feel of a quiet and secluded little place to enjoy a meal where in fact it’s a loud and rowdy establishment, then a customer who found you on the internet might walk in, but they’ll probably turn around and walk straight back out.

Use lots of images

When we see a lovely plate of well presented food, we want to eat it. It’s not rocket science. Using plenty of well taken photographs with a good photographic setup will make people consider coming to you.

At the same time, different people like different settings. So be sure to include some quality photographs of the restaurant too.

The end

So when you’re having your restaurant’s website designed, be sure not only to be thinking about how you’d like it to look. Get the inspiration from your customers, the food, and the restaurant itself.

Blog post written by Ismail Koci of Feedia - Web Design Brisbane