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The Rotten State Of Restaurant Web Sites

  • Slate, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 12:08 PM
Slate asks the questions on everyone's mind: Why are restaurant Web sites so terribly designed? "The rest of the Web long ago did away with auto-playing music, Flash buttons and menus, and elaborate intro pages, but restaurant sites seem stuck in 1999," it writes. Is it that restaurateurs can't afford to pay for good designers? Do they not understand what people want from a site? Maybe they just don't care what's on their site?

"Restaurant sites are the product of restaurant culture," suggests Slate. "These nightmarish Wb sites were spawned by restaurateurs who mistakenly believe they can control the online world the same way they lord over a restaurant." Suggests designer Eng San Kho: "People in restaurants have a sense that they want to create an entertainment experience online -- that's why disco music starts, that's why Flash slideshows open."

It's no coincidence that designers make more money to create complicated, multipage Flash sites than one that tells you everything you want to know on one page.

Read the whole story at Slate »

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