Even if you have no interest in design theory and fundamentals, for the sake of your business there is one point that should never be forgotten: the purpose of design is communication.

Communication Demands Relevance

Each industry has a unique audience, with unique needs & expectations. What works for a law firm website will not necessarily translate well to the design of a catering company website. In an industry flooded with generic templates and unqualified or (worse) apathetic service providers, this simple fact is often overlooked. For this reason, we present to you the first in a series of Web Design Anatomy articles. Motivated by the short and frustratingly familiar script referenced here, our first article will deal with Restaurant Websites.

Why Does a Restaurant Need a Website?

We’re not talking generalities here – in today’s marketplace just about EVERY type of business needs an online presence if they want to stay competitive. More specifically, we are asking the question: what is the purpose of a restaurant website?

The reductionist answer is twofold:
• To create an attraction between diners and your restaurant
• To provide the information they need to spend their money there

Attraction

This is the point that far too many restaurant owners get caught up in, at least superficially. It’s no secret that we are not supporters of Flash to the detriment of accessibility or functionality. How can you attract when you can’t be seen? It’s best to consider Flash as just one specialized tool in a very well stocked toolbox… it serves a niche function, comes with a ball of strings attached, and with advancements in the capabilities of JavaScript is quickly becoming obsolete.

It is important to present an impressive online image that represents everything great about your restaurant. But in order to make that impression, diners need to be able to actually VIEW your website. If they are out driving around, browsing for a restaurant on their iPhone, they will not be able to view your Flash website. At all. If they are using a search engine to find a restaurant, yours will likely be way down the list, as search engine optimization techniques for Flash sites are crippled, at best. There is also the issue of not being able to copy/paste, or bookmark individual pages. Statistically, Flash sites have an exponentially higher abandon rate than XHTML/CSS based sites.

Information

Following is a short list of requirements that every restaurant website should have in order to provide customers with the information they’re seeking:

• Restaurant Overview
  A basic introduction to your restaurant is a must. Even if you think the name of your restaurant is self-explanatory, people still like to see how you describe yourself. If you have any unique selling points (local-sourced or seasonal ingredients, fair-trade, vegetarian options, etc.) this is a great place to mention them.
• Location
  Diners need to know where you are, and how to get there. You don’t need to provide directions from every corner of town, but an address, basic map, and link to a direction-giving site like Google Maps is very helpful indeed. BONUS: include a photograph of the front of your restaurant, so first-time visitors will recognize it easily from the street.
• Hours
  Basic stuff, here. And this is very near the top of the list of priorities when a diner visits your website. Make them easy to find.
• Menu
  Your food is your business! If ever there were an influential and unique selling point, it would be a mouth-watering menu. Words paint a picture, here. Don’t just scan your paper menu into an annoying PDF file, either – invest in having a digital menu designed to complement your physical one. This is the page people will want to bookmark.
• Photos
  A picture surely does speak a thousand words. Show what you’ve described in your menu, and make the imagery so vivid that it elicits a Pavlovian response in your visitors. Show your food, show your restaurant, your staff, and your dining room. The food is the star, but the experience is the whole package.
• Reviews
  This is not a must-have, but it certainly is nice. Reviews are the first thing many people look at when considering a new restaurant to try. If your restaurant has been reviewed in print, you definitely want to boost the influence that press affords by including it in your website. If you’re not in print, patch in reviews from consumer sites like UrbanSpoon or Restaurantica, or any of the other dozens of options available in any given city. And if you’re brand-spanking-new, include a reviews page with a simple request and link for people to visit a chosen review site, and let the world know what they thought of their experience with you.
• Reservation/Contact Info
  This area can be the deal-closer in many cases. If you make it easy and painless for people to book a table, guess what they’ll be more likely to do? Provide an easy-to-find phone number, of course, but also consider bookings by email, or requests via a form on your website. You can even program in live reservations through services like OpenTable.

How to Annoy Your Customers

Some food for thought, straight from the horses’ mouths:

“I’m always taken aback when music emanates from my speakers when I’m viewing a site”

“Flash required. Biggest irritant of a restaurant website. Even more so if they have an “Intro” graphic/animation. Two of my fav places use flash for their sites and it’s very very annoying. Even more annoying with flash is not being able to copy/paste phone numbers.”

“Can’t stand it when a site starts with music or that stupid talking character/video. I’ve got my own playlist going already, thanks. I don’t want your music. And when I’ve opened a ton of tabs at once, skimming through to find a cool place to eat, it’s always a pain to figure out which ones are making the noise.”

“I have my windows set up so that everything is sized and positioned the way I want it. Nothing bugs me more than when a website takes over your browser and forces it to fill the screen.”

“Flash, flash, flash. I don’t care about your intro. I don’t want to watch a video of leaves unfurling. Atmosphere is nice, but I usually end up closing these sites before they’re even done loading.”

“Where’s the damn menu?! I scour the site for ages, then when finally find it, it’s a crappy PDF.”

Who Does It Right

Here are just a few examples of restaurants with websites that walk the walk in terms of design, attractiveness to their own target customer base, and serving their purpose through the provision of convenient, easy-to-find information.

Each of these sites has a design that appeals the demographics the restaurants are trying to attract. They look great. They work the way they should. And information is very easy to find.

The central lesson in all design, whether it be for print, digital distribution, or the web, is that (the right kind of) communication is king. The goal for any company’s website is to sell a product, service or idea. Obviously you want to look good doing it, but dressing up for a job interview will do you no good if you can’t communicate with your prospective bosses. And let’s face it… the customer is the boss.

It has also become an uber-brand that represents intangible, un-buy-able values (peace, love, joy, family, selflessness) simultaneously with supreme commercialism.

I love Christmas: hot cocoa, a roaring fire, home cooking, decorated trees, lit up streets, friends around, and the overall heightened consideration of other people (which really should be more present year-round). And of course, the unavoidable and remorseless spending of money we don’t necessarily have.

I like shopping as much as the next red-blooded woman, and I love choosing gifts for people I care about, BUT I loathe the chaos that is the holiday shopping experience. Firstly, running a fully booked design firm means I am impossibly busy, and it’s hard to find time to brave the traffic, find parking, and wait in obscene lines at the counter. So I shop for a lot of gifts online, which doesn’t seem particularly festive to me. Something is lost.

Smart online retailers are starting to catch on. In the same ways that a brick and mortar store would decorate their shop for the holidays, internet based companies are learning to create a more festive atmosphere for their customers. We all know that emotion sells. And the experience you’re providing for your customers online can be just as lucrative as one you might create in your physical store.

Now, my customers aren’t looking for the same thing as holiday shoppers. You’re business folk, and it’s not likely you’re going to hire a corporate designer as a gift for a loved one. But, I still felt like I should give a subtle little nod to the holidays… so I created a festive little holiday variant on our logo in the upper left corner. Even for those of us who aren’t selling a product, small efforts like this one show a human side that customers often appreciate.

If your business does happen to be one that caters to holiday shoppers, there are a few things you can do to improve your customers’ experience, and boost your online sales this December.

Intelligent Use of Colour
Humans are deeply and predictably influenced by visual stimulus, particularly the experience and use of colour. If you’re going to ‘decorate’ your website for the holidays, do it tastefully. Blinking flashy strings of rainbow christmas lights as text separators are not going to help your cause. A rich feature area with two or three cohesive colours in a consistent palette will create a pleasing experience, which will make your visitors want to stay and browse around.

Good Bone Structure
If your website design sucks, then no amount of tinsel is going to save it. Before you even think about holiday branding strategies, you need to make sure your base materials are solid. You need an impressive and credible visual image, a strong homepage with obvious calls to action, a simple and clean interface, an intuitive navigational structure, and a minimalist shopping process. Your visitors should not even have to think about how to use your site – you want their focus on your products, not your overcomplicated shopping cart software.

Holiday Sales!
This is a no-brainer. It’s the holidays. People expect special price offers. And if you’re not offering any, it’s nearly guaranteed that your competition is. On a recent trip to Home Depot, my husband noticed there were a lot of two-for-one sales on power tools. He wondered why one might need two of the same tool, but it was actually a pretty obvious holiday sales tactic… buy something you might have wanted for yourself anyway, and get another one free so you can tick a name off your holiday shopping list. It’s a double incentive on high value purchases that might otherwise be put off. His reaction? “That’s brilliant.”

Know Your Market
If you’re catering to a niche market, then your promotional decor should be appropriate to their tastes. A sporting goods retailer would take a vastly different approach to a high-end jeweler. Acknowledge the reasons people come to your website, think about what they want to get out of their visit with you, and adjust your design accordingly. Remember, this is about THEM, not you.

Time For Change
In Q4, users give advertisers 30% more of their time when compared with any other time of year. If you’re going to roll out a new product, new campaign, new feature or benefit announcement, now is the time to do it. On December 31st, advertisers get an additional minute overall to engage their audience. You have their attention. Don’t waste it.

Decorate Tastefully
Cut the clutter. If you have something important to say, don’t drown yourself out with background noise. In trying to say too much, too many end up saying nothing. Focus on a few big drivers, and organize yourself thoughtfully. Your customers come to your website because they want something specific from you, so make it easy for them to find.

Flash is Overrated
A little bit can be nice, but usability is much more important from a shopper’s point of view. The trick is to combine ease-of-use with a visual atmosphere that gives your visitors a good feeling about shopping with you.

I have a few power blocks in my office. None of them can accomodate one plug per socket, since a good proportion of my gadgets use big bulky adapters. I hide them from view where possible. One has a fancy blue light, but it’s not really a design feature.

Ramei is shining a light on those overlooked everyday objects the design world seemed to have forgotten. In fact, his website is filled with simple yet intuitive concepts. In the same area of design, his ‘cord trap’ won the prestigious Red Dot design award last year. He’s even constructed a cool pendant from old clothes hangers brought back from the dry cleaners.

This all illustrates one of my favourite business models… merging the concepts of simple, useful, and sexy. Well, a power bar may not necessarily meet the ‘sexy’ criterion on its own, but in context when compared with what’s available on the market today, it’s pretty swank.

Don’t even get me started on his ‘soar’ sofa, which unlike the Donut, is currently available for order on his website… if you’ve got the dosh.

In my personal life, I would be classified as what’s been somewhat unflatteringly coined SCUMY. That is, Socially Conscious Upward Mobile Youth. Though nearing 30, I’m not so sure about that Y at the end any more. I’m not an extremist, but I do what I feel I can. I’m a vegetarian, buy local produce, reduce and reuse where possible, compost or recycle the rest, work paperless and get around by bicycle, when it’s feasible. I also love hot showers and drive a pickup truck so… well, nobody’s perfect.

The little things we all do on a daily basis are significant, but at the same time, somewhat futile in the shadow of the astonishing impact made by the corporate world. More specifically, the companies who provide the things we use every day… our houses, vehicles, utilities, entertainment, clothing, and everything else down to that small package of screws you bought the other day at the hardware store. These are huge polluters, both directly through their own operations, and indirectly through the production and packaging choices they make.

As a small example of this trickle down effect, take a look at something just about all of us probably have in our refrigerators right now: the ubiquitous Heinz ketchup bottle. I’m not talking the classic glass one, but rather that big plastic tank with the ill-conceived and somewhat ironically named ‘easy squeeze’ cap. Yes, it won the Dupont Packaging Award, but I hate it. From an aesthetic standpoint, it’s just plain ugly on the table. Functionally, it gets a failing grade as well… I squeeze and squeeze and nothing comes out, until BAM. My plate is covered in an explosion of angry tomato. All this to avoid having to give your bottle a quick shake before serving.

I’m not going to pretend to know how efficiently Heinz runs their factories (or their suppliers, for that matter), but I do have one little statistic: production for just one of these lids uses 14.4g of oil, as opposed to 3.8g for a normal lid. Combine that with the fact that these bigger plastic containers are less recyclable and more damaging than the tried-and-true glass bottles, not to mention issues surrounding additives and offgassing. So even if we do choose to recycle, the choices regarding the degree of impact for that action have already largely been made for us.

As a designer who LOVES to work on product packaging, you would think I might be a bit more cavalier, favouring form over function, aesthetics over practicality. You’d be right, and wrong… because I don’t see these things as mutually exclusive.

Here’s how I see it:

• With the right design, environmentally responsible packaging can be significantly more visually appealing than its bulky nasty plastic alternatives.
• Production costs are often much lower than the popular overpackaging options.
• People who are buying Green products tend to have a higher income, and are willing to pay more for a smaller carbon footprint.
• More and more municipalities are considering shifting waste and recycling costs back to the companies that produce the materials in the first place.

These simple points taken into consideration, I would think that companies are looking at an incredibly easy decision when it comes to packaging their products.

The decisions for consumers are unfortunately not always so clear. With Green being the colour of the year, everybody’s looking to cash in on this seemingly new-found mass social conscience. Faux-friendly offerings abound, and marketing departments are spinning at full tilt. The average consumer doesn’t know the difference between degradable and biodegradable, so when major supermarkets start advertising 100% degradable packaging (hello, fossil fuels and toxic additives ), most of us are easily taken in.

But as with any free ride, this one’s coming to a close. That trusty old consumer skepticism is growing exponentially as more and more companies are making the Green claim without backing it up. The masses are getting wise. So my advice to you would be, don’t get caught in the backdraft.

Even if you forget about environmentalism and ecological responsibility for a second – the fact of the matter is, Green is more appealing, cheaper, easier, more sustainable, and more profitable. What’s not to love?

A successful catalog must be impeccably well-designed, and most importantly, needs to be tailored to convey your company’s image in a way that is relevant to your audience. For example, a catalog intended to sell modern gadgets and electronics should present an appearance and image vastly different to one intended to sell baking supplies.

The Front Cover
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? The front cover is your first impression, and as in so many other facets in life, first impressions are primarily visual. So, immediately, your front cover must be aesthetically appealing. Depending on your product and market, you may want to present a specific feeling… of refreshment, comfort, or excitement for example. Front cover design follows many of the same premises as ad design… keep the text content to a bare minimum (often just the company name, slogan, and perhaps a catch phrase), use a clean and uncluttered approach, and be sure the cover clearly features your company name.

Try to select an image that is relevant to your audience, and that will make them want to use your products. For instance, if you sell sports equipment, you might want to feature a dynamic image of a cyclist, pushing hard to the finish line or busting a difficult trick, wearing a jersey with your logo, and using equipment offered in your catalog. This type of imagery speaks directly to your audience, and uses a setting they understand and enjoy, allowing them to place themselves into that image (and by association into your products).

Back Cover
The back cover is often neglected space in catalogs and magazines, often reduced to ad space for other companies, or boring blank space with a barcode and address. A surprisingly high percentage of people actually read through catalogs backwards, starting at the last page and flipping to the front. I’m not sure why, but I often find myself doing it too. If you’re publishing a magazine, you would generally use this space for a second lead. Similarly, a catalog’s back cover can be used to feature new products or showcase an overview of major current products (with references to page numbers in the catalog itself).

And like the front cover, the back cover should be easy on the eyes with a simple message… attractive, clean, focused and uncluttered.

If you have other plans for the back cover, you could also position your second lead on the last inner page face within the catalog, since the reader’s eye lands there first when the catalog is opened from the back.

Inner Pages
Primary Focus
In laying out the catalog’s internal pages, as with any print materials, the primary focus zone is the upper right corner of each two-page spread. The reader’s attention will be directed there first as pages are turned forward. Similarly, the upper left corner of each two page spread is the sweet spot for backward flippers. Use these areas for products in your inventory that are the most visually compelling or interesting. Your best selling products can appear elsewhere on the page, unless you’re really trying to further push those products in excess of their current success. Diversify – your best sellers can become boring, in that featuring a product people are already familiar with doesn’t really garner any new interest.

Fonts
Use and treatment of type in any kind of publication is much more important than you may think. If you use a font that is too casual, or clutter your catalog with a dozen different fonts, you risk looking like an amateur outfit, which will sacrifice credibility, which will lower sales. And if your catalog isn’t easily and immediately legible, people won’t bother reading it, no matter how carefully your product images are laid out. Remember, most people tend to flip through catalogs rather than sitting down to read them like a novel… your message needs to be clear, concise and compelling. A few simple rules of thumb will ensure your catalog reads as good as it looks:
• If you want to use different fonts, use no more than 3: say one for section titles, one for product titles, and one for descriptions/prices.
• Vary type usage with bold weight, italics, different sizes and colours, but be sure to keep treatments consistent throughout the catalog.
• Font size should be no smaller than 8pt
• Using all capital letters should be kept to a minimum, and do not underline – use bold or italics for emphasis instead

Remember, consistency and clarity are key. You want the reader’s attention on the product, not a cacophony of conflicting typefaces and font treatments.

Brand Your Catalog
When your catalog arrives in the mail, your customer should immediately recognize it as belonging to your company. Customer loyalty depends on a certain level of predictability, which breeds familiarity and comfort. They know what to expect from your catalog, and they know how to find what they’re looking for within it. For example, everybody knows how to navigate the Sears Wish Book at Christmas time – and you know exactly what it is, even from a distance. It’s familiar, it’s easy to use, and people love it.

For your catalog, you will want to consider finding some kind of hook to differentiate your company from the competition. For example, Ikea catalogs often feature room packages, which show a full professionally designed room layout, with a total price for everything featured in that room, and a breakdown of products needed to achieve that look. It’s very effective for people who need a bit of design help or students on a budget, and is quite good at convincing people to buy add-on items from the same retailer in order to achieve a look they like.

All of your catalogs should follow a consistent navigational and design theme, so your customers will come to be familiar and comfortable with your catalogs. And by creating a “look” for your catalog that is comfortable and familiar for your readers, you will be able to keep their attention even when the products are switched over for new offerings.

Product Shots
Group photos are nice, but featuring individual items in a clean, polished way will sell better. Group shots do have their place, provided you use small groups of closely related products rather than a large pile of random “stuff” that can become confusing for your audience. And if you do use group shots, be sure that products within the shot are carefully and clearly keyed to the individual product descriptions (i.e., a small but clear “A” on the photo should correspond to the product description marked “A”).

When possible, isolate product shots on a stark and seamless white background, highlighting crisp detail and forcing focus on the product itself. If you’re selling jewellery, use professional photomanipulation to maximize the shine, gleam and sparkle in your products. Use subtle effects such as a barely visible drop shadow, or wet surface reflection, as appropriate for the specific product line. Again, if you use a certain effect, keep it consistent throughout the catalog.

Ordering
So you’ve sold them on a product, and now they want to buy it… but how? Be sure to make the order process exceedingly easy. So easy they could (almost) manage an order blindfolded. And though most people will process an order online or by phone, many people still prefer the old fashioned paper and pen order form – do not exclude these people, as they may prove some of your most loyal customers. Even people who order by phone or online may use the order form to work out the details of their order before making the call/visit. It’s also the perfect place to list terms of sale, return policies, and other relevant corporate information.

On your website, prominently list a phone number, email and order area/shopping cart. If you have an online store in addition to your catalog, create a custom order area where people can enter catalog product numbers directly so they do not need to go through the process of finding all their products over again on your site. If you have an order number, be sure it’s manned by a real, living breathing person – nothing turns customers off more than automated phone systems.

The Printed Product
You’ve invested a lot of time, consideration and planning into the effective design and layout of your catalog. Please, PLEASE do not just go with the cheapest print company you can find. You’ll regret it. Trust me.

Be sure to choose paper stocks that are suitably thick, and that feel nice against your skin. A thin, harsh uncoated stock looks cheap, feels rough, dulls colour, bleeds ink onto your hands and generally will not represent your company or products well. Use a proper cover gloss stock for your cover, and a nice gloss stock for the inner pages. 100pt is ideal, but 80pt is also acceptable given the paper feels and prints nicely.

And remember, your catalog is going to be delivered through the mail. Unless you’re packaging the catalog in a sealed plastic coating, it is going to be subject to some potentially harsh weather conditions. Keep this in mind when choosing your paper options.

Catalogs come in all shapes and sizes. The standard sizes are cheaper to print, and for most applications are perfectly suitable:
• Standard full-size (8 3/8″ x 10 7/8″)
• Slim (6 1/8″ x 11 1/2″)
• Digest-size (5 3/8″ x 8 3/8″)

Unique sizes will attract attention, and can be highly effective in building a unique brand image and moving product. However, moving away from the “standard” sizes will add as much as 25 percent to the cost of production. So you would need to evaluate whether the extra investment is worth it for your particular company.

Printing in increments of 16 pages will be the least expensive option, as heat-set web presses print in 16 page signatures. This means that your catalog would be 16, 32, 48, 64 pages long, and so on. The next best option is to design in page increments of eight.

Colour Sells
If you can afford to print your catalog in color, it will invariably make a better impression, and will generate at least 25% more sales than a black and white catalog right off the bat. Colour sells – no question. That said, as with all other elements in your catalog, colour schemes not related to your actual products should remain consistent throughout. You can also use different colours to represent different sections in the catalog.

Bring it all Together
Successful collateral design uses a lot of consumer psychology in addition to professional design theories, and catalogs are no exception. Take advantage of what professionals have learned about how consumers think, react and attach to concepts and visual elements. Consider how the reader’s eye crosses the page, capitalize on primary focus zones, and present your products in the best way you possibly can through use of layout, colour, type, and texture.

When a catalog takes on a personality of its own and becomes something the customer enjoys, then it has achieved a positive brand image. No other kind of marketing collateral targets a niche audience quite as well as a thoughtfully designed and produced catalog, which can either serve as your primary sales vehicle, or as an excellent companion to an online or physical brick-and-mortar shop.

As a design company director, I see this tendency way too often and frankly, I have a hard time understanding how entrepreneurs can so easily discount the importance of how their product LOOKS on the shelves, when they’ve put so much of themselves into building their company, and their product. They have a hard time paying a few thousand to develop their packaging design, when the numbers at stake can reach millions (or even billions if your company is all that). Every businessperson wants their product to succeed, but they don’t seem to understand that consumers are extremely scritinizing and visually oriented creatures. Your bagels could be the best thing since, well, sliced bread… but if the packaging looks like crap then nobody’s going to buy them.

Your packaging (whether you’re selling bagels, books, goggles or windex) speaks directly to the customer when you can’t – right at the point of sale. Thus, your packaging design should be a carefully tailored conversation, not an afterthought.

SO, here are a few tips to consider when developing your packaging (and obviously I would recommend hiring a design firm to facilitate the process)…

• Use the same development criteria for both the product and the packaging. This not only helps the package to work harmoniously with the product, but provides the connection between your product and your consumer.
• Your target audience should be a key element in formulating the design. Develop the package as if it were the product itself.
• The packaging should be an honest reflection of the enclosed product. If the packaging is too cheap or extravagant to support the products positioning, the consumer may be skeptical of the products quality or price.
• Depending on the product, the use of elements that allow the buyer to see the actual product can instill a level of trust. Being able to see the product’s color and construction is reassuring and will often sway the purchasing decision in your favor.
• Consider your colour palette carefully. Although bright saturated colors can be eye catching, making your packaging too colorful can confuse your message (and the result can often be like a bee sting to the eyes). By using color with purpose, your package design becomes thematic, making for a stronger message.
• Don’t cheap out. Your customers will know when you’ve cut corners, and that message will trickle down to direct judgment and assumptions about your company and your product.

Remember, package design is a critically important aspect of sales (and ultimately company) success. Treat the process with respect, and your product’s success will show the benefit.

Sage Media is an international corporate design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario.

The benefits of sustainable packaging design go beyond reducing your ecological footprint as well. It is also an excellent way to differentiate your company from the competition. Looking at companies like Aveda in the USA, and French Rabbit Wine in Canada, it is easy to recognize the sweeping success gleaned from marketing to today’s more environmentally aware and responsible consumers.

Sage Media is an international corporate design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario.