Website Analysis

I have been asked to do an evaluation on a website to find its strengths and weaknesses. I chose to use your website for Brownstone’s Restaurant and Bar, http://www.brownstones.com. I would like to start off by saying that I chose this site because I have never been there, so I felt that I could have an unbiased opinion. Also, it would allow me to view this site as a customer who was trying to learn more about the restaurant itself to decide whether or not I would like to dine there.

I would like to first say how much I like the simplicity of navigating through this site. It offers just enough information on the home page and gives you links to everything else you need to know. The entire site flows this way. I really like the fact that even the menu is done in this style. It is broken down into several different categories and if you select to learn more it then give you a list of all of the menu items in that selected category along with their descriptions. I find that oftentimes restaurants choose to just list their entire menu in order on their site along with the descriptions. This leaves the website viewers to spend a large chunk of their time scrolling up and down the page while trying to find something that might entice them. I think that keeping everything separated into different categories that people can choose to select if they want to is a wonderful idea.

There are a few things that I think might make the menu section even better. One thing I noticed is that all of the menu pages are simply a white background with black text, I think that simply changing the color of the names of the menu items, and possibly placing some of your most popular or signature dishes in bold would make a huge difference. This would just help people to differentiate between the different items and give them some recommended dishes. I also think that there should be a few pictures on the different menu pages. I am not saying to put a photograph of every menu item, but to instead use some of your best sellers from the menu section and include pictures of those. I noticed that there is a lot of blank space on the bottoms of the different menu pages; this could easily be fixed by adding the pictures I discussed earlier.

Another suggestion that I world like to make is in regards to the home page. There is a description on the home page of the type of food that the restaurant serves, and mentions a few of there signature dishes. However, the slideshow goes so quickly that it took me three times to completely read it. If it was just slowed down by a few seconds then it would be much easier to read. A lot of people visiting the site for the first time might get upset or feel dumb because they could not read it all the way through the first time.

I think that this site is very well designed. It has all of the information that I think should be on a restaurant website. I really like all of the categories and sub-categories that are hyperlinked on the site. I do think that they should include more photos of their food and drinks. I also wish they would put their drink specials online. This a large selling point to a lot of people, especially in a college town. I did really like the fact that they listed all of their upcoming entertainment for the next month and a half. It always looks good to have a well maintained and up to date website. The few things that I suggested changing on the site were just to make it look a little more appealing to the average person who has never been to the restaurant before. I hope that I might have suggested at least one thing that you might consider.