Chang's Restaurant
After interviewing Chang's Garden restaurant, I found that they "the website is very old and need a new one". This is because they are located by the University of Connecticut and want to make their designs reach the college students that live around the area.
Project Overview
After interviewing Chang's Garden restaurant, I found that they "the website is very old and need a new one". This is because they are located by the University of Connecticut and want to make their designs reach the college students that live around the area.
Home Page
To the right is what their home page looked like before. Although it is very effective in only having one call to action to order online and have a basic phone number to reach out to them, there is a lot more that could be added to make people revisit their website and learn more about the restaurant.
Top Menu Items
1. Today's Special
After interviewing Chang's Garden, I found out that they have a special menu item each day specially prepared by the Head Chef. This very key information was not present on the original website, so I added this section to allow customers to check what the special menu item is that day without having to call the restaurant to find out what it is.
2. Popular This Week
Another thing I added based on personal experience, whenever I go to a restaurant, especially if I am not familiar with the food, I get overwhelmed by the amount of menu items. So, to make it easier for other students that visit this website (less than 10% of UConn's student body is Asian), I decided to include a "What is popular this week" section that includes pictures so that people that have Chinese food for the first time can visualize and start learning the menu items that way.
3. Reviews
Finally, I added a reviews section to give the restaurant more credibility and make new customers trust that their hard earned money will be well spent on a delicious and authentic Chinese meal.
This review's page was originally an individual page. However, there was an overwhelming amount of scrolling to read hundreds of customer reviews. Also, considering how I chose to promote Today's Special and what is Popular This Week, I thought it would be a good idea to have reviews right after to show the food is good.
Menu Page
The original menu only had lists and you would have to scroll back and forth for really long lists to open up and close the tabs.
Improved Menu Page
1. Recategorizing
As we can see from the original menu above, on the menu category alone, there were a lot of categories to choose from. What was interesting is that there were some menu items that were stand alone foods such as lo mien which could be under noodles, poultry, seafood, pork, etc. So instead of having those stand alone menu items as a category, I thought it would be better to have the type of meats as a category with that type of food under it. This not only helps tidies up the categories, but also helps the users be less confused when there are duplicate menu items.
2. Images
Quite often I find it very useful when restaurants have images even for well known dishes because I always get names of food confused. Knowing that not everyone is familiar with Chinese food, I thought it would be a good idea to enhance the visual cues for the customer to understand what they will be ordering.
Gallery Page
Surprisingly, for a well known and established restaurant, they did not have any images in their gallery. However, I didn't just want to add any images, I wanted to add images that would tell a story such as what kind of people go to this restaurant and what makes Chang's Garden unique.
Images that tell stories
1. Inside Our Store
Some times it is not about the food. Some times, there is a certain vibe to the restaurant that makes us feel a certain way. Chang's Garden, which has been one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Storrs, has a collection of tea pots and warm wood aesthetic, making it feel nostalgic and cozy as you enter the door.
2. Events
Further inside the store, they have special private rooms that are bigger and more modern for parties and events that they host throughout the year such as writing your wish on a lantern for new years, birthday celebrations, and more.
2. Behind The Scenes
Although not everyone really cares about who the chef is, there are always people who appreciate the detail of being informed who made their food. Especially with Chang's Garden's excellent chefs and clean kitchen.
ABout Page
Chang's Garden about page is very minimal, getting to know what their "modern interpretation of classic dishes" look like, and what other things that make the restaurant special would be nice to show off proudly.
Chang's Garden's Story
1. Restaurant Highlights
This about page simply puts what is already mentioned in the about page but in a more visually appealing way.
2. Call To Action
Perhaps after learning more about the restaurant itself, people would be interested in taking another look at the menu. So, instead of having to scroll all the way back up, I left button that links tot he Menu and another that links to the Contact page.
CONTACT PAGE
Basic Information with added navigation
The contact page was mainly a redesign of the same elements. I added a button to order online, and another button to view the menu. Although this might seem redundant for a simple website, I thought it would help users find what they would go to the contact page for, which is to order and ask questions about the menu, much faster.
Contact Page - Original
Contact Page - Redesigned
