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News & ArtsWednesday, August 4, 2010
Chow / Teh Internets An Andy Rooney Moment™: On Restaurant Websites
Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 1:47 PM
When I want to figure out where I'm going to eat, my process, I think, is not unique. I'll Google a restaurant on my phone. I'll read recommendations online (at sites that I trust). But sooner or later, I'm going to want to go to the restaurant's own website. This is always a frustrating experience.
My Android phone, like the vast majority of phones out there, can't handle Flash. For some reason, restaurant owners seem to believe that a Flash entry for their website is essential. But it's not just Flash: If I want to order takeout on my way home, I'll need to see a menu. Most restaurants, for some reason, make their menus available as a downloadable PDF only, which is crazy inefficient on a mobile browser.
And so I suggest to restaurant owners: If you don't have a smart phone, borrow a friend's. Try to find your website on the phone the way a customer would. Then be completely flabbergasted at how frustrating an experience it is. If, for some reason, you feel that your website absolutely needs to have all the bells and whistles (it doesn't), you should at least make sure that you have a super-simple mobile-ready version of the site available for impatient people with your hours, your phone number, your address, and your menu. We want to buy food from you and you are making it incredibly difficult.
This has been an Andy Rooney Moment™.
1
This doesn't make it any better, but my guess is that most individual restaurant owners know nothing about HTML. They have 2 choices: pay someone to design a site, or buy a template. Buying a template is vastly cheaper. A lot of visually attractive templates use Flash. So they end up using a pretty Flash template, having no idea that it is a pain in the ass, and completely unsuitable for mobile devices.
They'll change them if enough people complain.
They'll change them if enough people complain.
4
From what I hear* Flash is soon to die, when the new version of HTML is released.
*from Mr. Lucky, who sometimes designs websites for restaurants.
*from Mr. Lucky, who sometimes designs websites for restaurants.
5
the two main things I want to see at the restaurant's website are:
1) where are you? (address please, a map if you want to make it even easier).
2) what are your hours?
So many restaurant websites are all about their theme, ambience, etc., but don't have (or hide) these basics. And even worse, they list their address but it's displayed as an image so you can't even copy it to a mapping site.
1) where are you? (address please, a map if you want to make it even easier).
2) what are your hours?
So many restaurant websites are all about their theme, ambience, etc., but don't have (or hide) these basics. And even worse, they list their address but it's displayed as an image so you can't even copy it to a mapping site.
6
I hear ya, but also can see the point of view of restaurants with ever-changing menus. It requires no real skills to upload a new PDF, whereas updating their menus in HTML would require hiring the designer every time it needs doing.
7
Whaaaa? No. Updating text in HTML is way easier than updating it in whatever native file your PDF is generated from. Updating text in HTML can, in fact, be super super simple.
9
Also: restaurateurs are crazy and narcissistic.
My solution: Have Yelp, Urbanspoon, or Google Menu(?) add menus and Happy Hour details from restaurants. Allow businesses to enter this information free and easily and link to their website, which no one will actually need once this system is working.
My solution: Have Yelp, Urbanspoon, or Google Menu(?) add menus and Happy Hour details from restaurants. Allow businesses to enter this information free and easily and link to their website, which no one will actually need once this system is working.
13
@10, maybe so, but should it? There is zero reason for an informational website like a restaurant site to have Flash on it. It's only ever used to do something mindbogglingly stupid, like shimmy the restaurant logo across the screen or something. THIS IS RETARTED. Address, hours, phone number, menu, map. Email address is cool if you allow reservations that way. A picture of the dining room and the bar is acceptable.
Paul is 100% dead on here. I have given up on restaurants and gone elsewhere because of this before.
Paul is 100% dead on here. I have given up on restaurants and gone elsewhere because of this before.
14
well every site should have a small html site map, contact information, address, and a link to a pdf menu accessible outside the flash.
But I think every device that accesses the web should support flash is some fashion.
But I think every device that accesses the web should support flash is some fashion.
15
You people would have starved in any time period right before iSelfAbsorbed clicked in. Let's see there was word of mouth, phone books, memory of times/places previously patronized, recommendations of others who eat food. Really, how hard could it be? Is this why Chez Gaudy went tits-up - because no one could find it, or read their menu, or know their address?
16
@15 just download the Washington Post iPod app and you can find all the bars and restaurants you want in DC.
17
@1,
Just off the top of my head, Lunchbox Lab and Oddfellows have insanely fancy, Flash-heavy websites that take forever to load on a regular computer. Lunchbox Lab's site even has sound effects. They had to have been created by web designers, likely at great expense.
Just off the top of my head, Lunchbox Lab and Oddfellows have insanely fancy, Flash-heavy websites that take forever to load on a regular computer. Lunchbox Lab's site even has sound effects. They had to have been created by web designers, likely at great expense.
18
The only thing better than a web designer, is an app created by another web designer who realizes you don't need to load forty gazillion things for a fricken restaurant web page.
19
I agree! Maybe you could print this up and leave it on tables or something cuz it is time for this change already.
22
@15: Thanks for your astounding revelation. Before the phone book came about, did people have to not use the phone book?
Restaurants could use the Internet to make it easier to find information. When they instead use it to make a picture caper and gambol about the screen, that is useless and stupid.
Restaurants could use the Internet to make it easier to find information. When they instead use it to make a picture caper and gambol about the screen, that is useless and stupid.
24
I'd say Paul's Andy Rooney Moment® applies to any business owner, or anyone who has charge of an organizational or government site.
In fact, though I've checked my sites on the iphone, I need to check them on the droid and blackberry too. Thanks for the reminder, Paul!
In fact, though I've checked my sites on the iphone, I need to check them on the droid and blackberry too. Thanks for the reminder, Paul!
25
When I worked for an ad agency, our restaurant clients simply posted PDFs generated from the print files used to create the in-house menus. Even if HTML is the easiest thing ever, paying someone even for an hour of work vs. a designer spending 2 seconds clicking the "Export to PDF" button is going to be no contest to a restaurant owner with razor-sharp margins.
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