Since the end of last week, Bill and I have been working on finalizing our schedule. We’ve got all the major and minor milestones laid out, due dates assigned, and responsibilities delegated. We’re double-checking to make sure everyone involved can commit to the schedule. However, it’ll likely change very little if at all. Here it is:

Production Schedule

Looking for a logo

On Friday, I met with Bill and Chris Decatur to go over some initial concepts for our new logo. Chris is one of digital telepathy’s designers, and put together some initial concepts for our the meeting.

• Logo Concepts – Page 1
• Logo Concepts – Page 2

As we went over the concepts, there were two I gravitated towards and felt had real potential.

The Magnet

The magnet concept really played on the idea of us “pulling in” social content. I loved the concept here since this really illustrates the core of what we’re looking to do. Not only that, but using a magnet gives us some really strong direction for the rest of our creative, both visually and in terms of marketing copy.

The biggest thing I want to work on with this one is simplifying it. Logo design is often about taking a complex, or abstract concept and simplifying it visually. The trick is to do this without losing the ability to recognize the initial idea. Chris did a great job with this so far, but we just need to push it a bit further.

The other concern that I had was making sure we didn’t venture too close to Unison’s logo. Especially considering the guys over at Panic love to call out people who can’t seem to come up with their own ideas. I don’t think we have anything to worry about though. To be honest, Bill and Chris didn’t even know what Unison was until I took them to the website.

“The Squiggle”

I wasn’t really called “The Squiggle”. I just needed something short to use for a heading. Just to be clear, this is the concept exploration done in the bottom right of the first page.

What I liked about this direction was the simplicty. I love simplicity, I really do. I felt this mark was elegant, yet bold. What it was lacking was a strong story. It needed a reason other than just being simple for the sake of being simple. The whole “let’s combine the initials of the company” thing is straightforward and common. (Yes, I do know what you’re thinking right now. No, I’m not saying its wrong. Let’s just move on…) However, the act of bringing together, or combining, the “P” and “S” does actually tie in with what we do quite well. I want to see if we can push that angle more with this one and make it a little more apparent.

What do you think?

I put some of my initial feedback out there for a couple reasons. First of all, I think that by hearing my own feedback, it’ll give you some insight into our thought processes around these concepts, and allow you to understand them more than you would if you were to just see them on your screen. I can’t repeat everything we discussed (not that there were any secrets, I just don’t have the time), but hopefully I’ve hit the important points.

Secondly, I want to get the conversation started. We want to hear what you think about the direction we’re going. I think its rare to see these early stages of the design process exposed in this way, but I’d rather hear your opinions now. A couple months from now (or maybe even a couple weeks from now), we’ll be too far along to easily react and adapt to feedback, suggestions, etc. Good or bad, bring it!

Contact Information

Many visitors go to restaurant websites simply looking for the address or phone number. They are either ‘Googling’ you from their computer or their cell phone and they should easily be able to find this information without visiting another page or watching a flash intro. Have the phone number and address in plain text, preferably in the header (but if not, above the fold), and your customers will thank you.

Maps

Google Maps are a great way to help your visitors find your restaurant. Instead of directly linking to websites like Mapquest or Yahoo Maps, embed the map on the page so your customer isn’t taken to another site.

Rich Media

Many websites force an experience of music, animation, or long intros on their visitors—including to their loyal repeat traffic—and all it does is annoy them. Your website should do nothing else but connect people with your restaurant. Put your vital information in an obvious place and you will be rewarded. The more you overuse Flash, the less likely someone is going to be able to print and save your most important marketing materials.

The Menu

Your menu should be the primary focus of your website. It should be current and easy for you to update using a Content Management System, or a “CMS.” It should also be formatted for visitors to print easily. If your restaurant prints new menus on a daily or weekly basis, you can serve both your updating and printing needs at the same time.

Updating your “specials” is a great way to draw patrons by promoting their favorite dishes, urging them to try something new, or offering a great deal. Documenting your specials on your website provides customers with a history of your creative culinary work and reminds them of what they enjoyed. Furthermore, allowing your customers to comment on your menu items and specials, or send menu items to friends, is an innovative opportunity to explore, similar to what you see with each product on Amazon.com. These user generated reviews show that you appreciate your customers’ opinions as well as give you honest feedback on your selection and service.

Email Sign Ups

Start building a database of your customers now. Even if you’re not sure when you’ll start emailing, it’s never too early to begin collecting email addresses from your interested customers. Building a database of your customers’ contact information is the first step to communicating with your customers interactively. Each page of your website should have an email sign up form so it’s simple to stay in touch.

Basic contact info, a map, limited use of rich media, a solid menu with updated specials, reviews from customers, and email sign up forms are several fundamentals of the restaurant website.

The next post in this series will shed some light on how restaurants should leverage local search, city directories, listing sites, and blogs to drive reservations and exposure.

Make a solid first impression.

Think of the user experience. If you have a fancy Flash intro, you must offer a skip intro button. It is frustrating to want to move forward and not be able to, and this person is just getting to know you! As a matter of fact, if you know you have to offer a skip intro button and that most people are going to use it, why use an intro at all? Deliver what your visitors want without the waiting game. If you must use an intro, at least make your site intelligent enough to recognize loyal visitors who keep returning with cookies, so they don’t have to keep hitting that skip button each time. Don’t make your visitors wait while your home page uploads or launches in a pop up window, as most people get those pop ups blocked. You only have a few precious seconds to engage your visitors with the content on your site. Don’t lose a potential lead or sale before they know anything about you because they lost interest and left.

Don’t play music that the visitor hasn’t requested.

If you have music on your site that automatically starts playing, you are bound to have a high abandonment rate—even if the Stop button is prominently displayed. Just because you can do something on the Internet, doesn’t mean you should. With your website, you are creating an experience for your visitors with your brand. Are you making that experience engaging or annoying? Frantically searching for the audio on/off button is just another speed bump between what you want the visitor to accomplish. If you are a band promoting your music, then yes, music is appropriate, but for anyone else, is it really necessary? Also consider how many people surf the web at work and when blaring music comes out of their speakers, their natural response will be to shut the window down immediately. If you must have music, make it an option browsers can select if they want.

Don’t overuse technology just because it’s new/seems cool/you can.

Every time a new technology is introduced for the web, some designers want to abuse the new toy. It happened with Flash and is now happening with AJAX. Good designers know when to empower new technologies to specifically accomplish their desired action. For instance, Flash is great for delivering videos and multimedia but if your whole site is Flash you are at a major disadvantage. Search engines cannot read Flash at all so that means you have no placement on any engine where your potential customers are trying to find you through search, nor can you develop any Search Engine Optimization. Also, some of the most basic and most often used features are disabled by Flash: the print function, the back button (it sends you back to the last website you were on before the current one), and unique URLs to easily share specific content with others. Let’s say a visitor decides they want to come in to your office/store to make a purchase. They click on the contact us page and then hit the back button to see the product again. Instead, they are sent to Google and are looking at all your competitors. Flash is a beneficial tool, but should never be the backbone to your entire site.

Content is the most important part of your site.

Search engines index text, not graphics or fancy animations. Your home page should be text-rich and the platform your site is built on should make it easy for you to update fresh, relevant content to your site on a regular basis. A Content Management System (known as CMS) makes it easy for you, the business owner, to have full control over your site. A solid content strategy is needed to keep your site dynamic. Start with text and then begin blogging about your industry happenings, your products or services, case studies on your clients, new trends, and valuable insights. Share with your visitors why you are the best at what you do and they will reward you with sales and referrals. Then turn your blog posts into podcasts and marketing events. Start emailing your database (yes, you should also be collecting “subscriptions” from people on your site) on a regular basis to get repeat traffic and loyal readership. The content avenues are endless if you set up your site so you can painlessly add new subject matter!

The design and experience should be the same on all browsers.

It is true that the majority of people still use Internet Explorer, but more and more savvy prospects use a slew of others like Firefox, Safari, and Camino just to name a few. Often times users on alternative browsers represent a key marketing demographic known as “early adopters.” This segment is likely to spread the viral word about your product. And savvy Internet searchers are more likely to be engaging with you online for your product or service. If this key demographic can’t view your site in its optimum setting, you are missing a critical Internet demographic. Don’t forget that more and more people are accessing sites on mobile devices as well, so make your website universally accessible.

Remember, you want prospects to have an enjoyable experience on your site so they do business with you. At Integral Impressions, we believe in designing sites with a purpose and clear focus. We eliminate the clutter to deliver your marketing messages in a clear manner with actionable results.

Authored by Heidi Hayes.

Here is the link for those of you having trouble finding it.