restaurant site crit plz.
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- bigtrickagain
Hello,
I'm almost done with this site here:
the problem is that I want it to be user-updatable - it's on a wordpress backend now, and as you can see, some of the sections (Press, Events) are WP pages with dynamic content and don't look that great compared with other sections (House, Menu) that have my own static images in there. I'd appreciate any/all feedback on this.
Cheers!
- idiots0
no
- idiots0
no predominant text
navigation placement is poor
too many clicks
menu is 2 columns of fluff text?
pdf menu pages?
the calendar doesn't match
really google maps? that looks.... good?
- ideaist0
I've tried thrice to load the site to no success homey...
- sequoia0
there's no photos of the food
- probably the most important thing...sequoia
- yeah, i have yet to add the gallery...bigtrickagain
- if you just want to have a pdf menu at least have a great photo of one item off each selected menutraut
- idiots0
there's a better example of the open table implementation here
http://pachamamas.com/
their menu is also much better as well
and the people section has hierarchy, which yours doesn't
you've really done nothing to promote your client at alland if you did the logo, there is absolutely nothing custom about it, or this site experience
- there are some pdfs that better support the brand and site as well on thereidiots
- << nice sitejacklalane
- no i didn't do the logobigtrickagain
- coolidiots
- e-wo0
Not feeling the google map & calendar – those and the menus are your big spots to shine
- dirtydesign0
that background is really distracting.
- idiots0
you're fired!
are you kidding me?
- that's way to help the google indexing and CMS aspectidiots
- If you're going to have text as graphics, don't type set orphans and widowsmonospaced
- bigtrickagain0
hmmm ok - i was wondering about the calendar/map thing too (anyone know of a good calendar app?!?!? see this thread: http://www.qbn.com/topics/621234…) - i might just take those out and replace with nicer non-google things.
good point about the menu being two cols of text - i'll see about putting more intuitive content in there. pdf menus is something i can't change - client decision there ):
thanks for the feedback so far, it's been helpful - keep it coming (:
- ok_not_ok0
Drop the BG. The rounded box feels very constricting..open it up and let it breath.
- noneck0
Yeah, ditch the images for straight text that Google can read. I'd do the same with the PDF menus: get them out of the PDFs and into the site.
Try to get some photos of the food if possible.
- d_rek0
My first thought was the background was incredibly distracting.
Not much heirarchy to the navigation or typography either.
The light text on the images in the menu section is nigh illegible as well.
Also, is there anyway to style the calendar (forgive my ignorance, i do not know if this is possible). It feels slightly out of place.
Also, in the menus i see no need to have separation for each meal type if all you're going to offer is a PDF to download - just group them all on one page.
On a whole I think you need to exercise some compositional skill. Add some whitespace to your navigation and copy. Impose some heirarchy to your typography. And tone down the background, please.
- idiots0
at least when you click menu; column 1 is fluff text with hours, column 2 is the pdf menu links
my 2 cents: your design and user experience skills are non existent, there is no consistency or conformity in this experience
1. delete all of this as if it never existed
2. read a couple books on information organization and grid guidance/relevance
3. start over- damn, are you in a bad mood?OSFA
- "menu" page content was dictated by client :| gotta make them happy...bigtrickagain
- idiots0
haha, d_rek and i may not agree on how to get to the end but we definitely agree on how the end should look/function :D awesome
- idiots0
@OSFA no, I'm not in a bad mood. let me explain.
if you followed the client approval process thread, it's obvious i have beliefs on design. i don't want an amateur doing valuable work like this for me. this could possibly be the face of someones business. sometimes there are threads for ae tuts and free downloads as if design is a hobby, then there are complaint threads as to slow or non payment. it is not both ways. if you want to justify your cost, this is a real business. social networkin link relevance and text indexing are part of what we offer, our best practice would be to follow best practice.
when your oping statement is i want the site to be user updateable instead of CMS driven that's a red flag, then when you find they have made an image of the hours of operation, that will not be wordpress "updateable" that's afield of red flags.
so either you do your job right and the car works again after the repairs or you get some lackluster cheap job and you wreck pulling out
- *takes idiot's advice, changes career to golf caddy*bigtrickagain
- did Utopian and monospaced have a child together?sequoia
- more like airey and magicpatchbigtrickagain
- version...7?OSFA
- I know what you mean, but u also have to consider that some of us here want to learn new things not as a hobby, but so that we can have an idea of things and improve not only our job, but everyone else'sOSFA
- we can have an idea of things and improve not only our job, but everyone else'sOSFA
- I rather ask stupid questions about AE than look like an idiot when the time for me to work on a project involving it comes...OSFA
- maybe version 7 because version 1 sucks. you shouldn't charge for a service you can not complete competentlyidiots
- bigtrickagain0
@idiots: this is the crux of the question i am asking: i need to balance a nice aesthetic with playing nice with wordpress. the client obviously wants both. the images are a quick way to satisfy the client's needs for prettiness on sections of the site which will not need to be updated very much. the other sections, the ones without the static graphics, are the ones that need to change more frequently and thus a static image is not a viable choice.
when i say user updateable, i do mean cms driven, not instead of - the content is driven by wordpress and ideally i would love for all of the site to be this way.
- BattleAxe0
you can use one of these calendars and still pull the data from a google cal app http://plugins.jquery.com/taxono…
- idiots0
you are not playing nice at all with wordpress
that looks ass and there is no conformity (we all see it)
if you wanted; you could build a custom framework of includes for WP, set some php print functions for custom data that isn't feed driven and through a bit of categories/tagging, have a dynamic menu driven site that publishes to twitter/facebook. instead you have some shit pdfs on a poor color scheme with a blurry background
- easy there tiger. i think he gets the point.sequoia
- custom framework of includes...? explainbigtrickagain
- no no by all means, let him ejaculate his froth in a forum where he is able tobigtrickagain
- hahaha!!OSFA
- idiots0
@bta "ejaculate his froth" fucking lol :D
RE: WP themes; most are built of includes that are called by master pages, so you could easily build a footer, header, sub headers, etc that build out a site that doesn't look like a WP blog. inside that modules you've built you add print functions for the custom fields. manage those in WP with magic fields and voila