FINAL PROJECT - Critique of the effectiveness of the Belmont’s Web-Site
Name: The Belmont Cafe
URL: http://thebelmontcafe.com
Who is the target audience?
Dinner/Bar Patrons of the Hollywood Area. Hip rock’n’roll patrons looking for a local bar/restaurant atmosphere.
What works and does not work with the design of the current website?
The pages are all themed the same with color and navigation. Yet the whole site was created in FLASH so clicking on links isn’t always clear where to look next. Overall too much pop up information can be distracting or dare I say to “flashy” to obtain clear concise information.
What did I learn from my competitive analysis and how did this impact my re-design?
For other restuarants in the area it is a bit more loud, with music playing and an array of graphics and pop ups used, yet I personally like the html/css feel of some of the other restaurants a bit better. They were easier to navigate and to know where I’ve been and where I was headed, ie breadcrumb navigation.
The Critique of the Website
The Grid - It seems the use of grid system was not used on the site, it seemed to be more of a comilation at times than an orginized layout.
Color Palette - The color pallete is consistant, other than the add images that do not seem to have been designed by the webmaster.
Navigation - The main nav toolbar is consistant and that is about all the nav used other than the home page which is a bit confusing.
Design Principles
- Identity - The header seems the same on every page but only shows us there Zagat rating, there identity is stuffed on the bottom left of the page throuought the site, whick doesn’t make it much of a focal point at all.
- Whitespace - The site really has no white space to speak of which makes the site, after a few minutes browsing, a little boring.
- Balance - The page is well balanced by remaing consistant with the main design areas such as header body footer, yet the exact same format throughout is a tad reduntant.
- Proximity - Even though the logo does not stand out right away, it being bigger and alone in bottom left corner does give it a sense of emphasis.
Typography - Used mainly the same font throughout other than the logo. Not much variety with size and position.
