For my pro web design class, my team and I decided to create a website for a local restaurant that was in need of a professional website. Red Moon Noodle House is a Chinese restaurant located on the popular Convoy street in San Diego.
Client Survey
Our first order of business was to learn about the owner of the restaurant and the restaurant itself. We spent some time in the restaurant and ordered food to feel out the vibe of the restaurant and observe the customers there. After doing so, we came up with a list of questions to get to know the owner more and find out his expectations of the website.
Learning about the owner Victor, we found that he is the owner of a small, family business and wants his customers to see it that way. He cares a lot about his style of food and takes great pride in what he does. The unique style being Japanese style Chinese food, we want to reflect that in the website. Even when speaking to us during the warm-up, Victor displayed great hospitality and warmth, and his website should also be welcoming and inviting to those who view it. His menu is special, different than many other Asian restaurants on Convoy, so his food needs to be stand out on the website.
The restaurant is small, but is very successful. We can see this by looking at their yelp page, which contains high reviews, and seeing that their restaurant was still full even after rush hour. As a restaurant that serves Japanese-styled Chinese food, the restaurant is designed with an oriental look. The tables, chairs and benches are made of wood and the walls are colored red. The bottom half of the walls are lined with yellow-tinted wood. To reflect the restaurant’s oriental background, the palette of the website should include red and yellow (color matched with the restaurant’s color’s).
Some more key responses we received:
What content do you want on the website?
What kind of branding would you have (style, logo, motto, etc.)?
How would you define a perfect website?
Personae/User Scenarios
Interviewing nine participants, our group generated three personae: conservative eater, adventurous eater, and caterer. From our interviews, we discovered features that users felt were important to include in the future website. Taking into consideration of the clients requests and what was deemed necessary by interviewees. we were able to come up with a set of mandatory features and functionalities to include into the future Red Moon Noodle House website.
Example of our conservative eater persona:
“Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system as in architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams and sewing patterns.”
— Ben Stellar, CEO & Founder