Website critique
Critique of “Sushi Don” website
The Grid
The site adheres to a grid overall, although I think the content could be better spaced to fit the grid. The header and navigation column are positioned well but much of the spacing of the content seems sloppy and careless.
Color Palette
Very little thought has been given to the color palette. The text is mostly black on a white background with some random garish text color thrown in throughout the site. I think some bolder color in the header or navigation would give the site some more visual interest, and maybe also a background color or texture.
Navigation
The site uses a two-column design. The navigation column works fine. It indicates what page you are on by using a dark grey color for the “rollover” and “active” state. Perhaps the contrast of the two shades of grey could be a little greater to make the current page clearer, but it’s not too bad.
Design Principles
The design of the site does not seem very deliberate. The site does not have a strong sense of identity, which means it doesn’t portray the restaurant as having much identity. The logo at the top is sized well to give it hierarchical importance, but the faded photo of sushi and the conservative black text don’t grab the users eye as much as they perhaps should. Balance is OK but there is some haphazard whitespace on most of the pages that could be designed better. The main content column appears split in two because of the map and restaurant image placed on the right, which seems awkward. I think if the text wrapped around the bottom of these elements it would work better; right now it feels like a three-column site but it really is a two-column with sloppy layout.
Typography
The typography is haphazard and quite ugly. The text color changes to some garish colors and the blue monospace headlines don’t seem to have any thought behind them. The spacing of the type on the “side order” page is just bizarre. The serif-font of the logo is OK if a little boring.
The menu is presented as graphic images, which is bad from an accessibility point of view because the text cannot be searched or enlarged or read by a screen reader. It would be better presented as HTML text with images of the food mixed in; better from a SEO and an accessibility standpoint.
The target audience of the site is middle-class sushi lovers in their twenties or thirties, but nothing has been done to design for the target audience, who are most-likely heavy Internet users who appreciate good design. The sloppy typography and garish color scheme are not well planned. The website serves its basic function of providing information about the restaurant to potential customers, but nothing has been done to make the restaurant or food seem attractive. Overall I can’t say the site is a failure, but there is certainly a lot of room for improvement.
I learned that there needs to be a clear sense of unity and identity throughout my site, and the primary focus should be to make the restaurant and food seem attractive.
