Development Process
Purpose and creation steps
The purpose of this website is to help my "uncle" grow his catering business. I want visitors to be able to learn more about his company, see the services he offers, see example menus, and be able to get in touch with him to be able to request more information. When creating the website, I tried to keep it simple but attractive, make navigation simple, and make the information as easy to find as possible. I didn't want to make something overly complicated or difficult to navigate.
Defense of the Final Product
Why did you make the design choices you did?
My primary goal was a simple to navigate site that presented the information as clearly as possible. I prefer a clean look that loads quickly, and is not cluttered. I also wanted to choose a color palette that was reminiscent of warm "spices" and would be appropriate for a food/catering company.
Page Components
Colors: I chose a "warm" color palette that would be inviting and appetizing. I wanted it to be easy to read, and visually appealing. I also wanted to choose colors that would render well on a variety of platforms & browsers. For my typography, I chose commonly used sans-serif fonts such as Calibri & Verdana. These are nearly univerally accessible fonts, and don't require any addition code or downloads to display. For the navigation header, I wanted something simple, but with some visual appeal, so I chose to have the background & hyperlink colors change on a mouseover, and then change back when moved off of.
What did you do to make the page professional, engaging, and easy to use?
I personally find sites that use an excessive amount of "tricks" to be unprofessional. Needless animations, seizure-inducing flashing, annoying music, etc. I chose to not use those to keep the site simple and visually appealing. I think the ease of navigation and quick-to-find information will make end-users happy, and engage them by encouraging them to use the contact us form to get in touch with my uncle.
Opportunities for Improvement and Growth
Future of the Website
In the future, I would like to expand the website to include more specifically designed menus to give people even more ideas of what might be a good fit for their event(s). I think that more incorporation with social media would drive more traffic to the site, and build word-of-mouth "buzz" for the business. Finally, I'd like to add a testimonials section to let customers share their feedback about their experience a la Yelp. I would also like to incorporate more photos from actual events, perhaps with a javascript powered photo album/slideshow app.
What could you have done differently with more time or resources?
I think with more time/resources I would have added more graphical elements such as pictures of menu items. I would have added a pop-up link for each item that would show an actual sample photo of what the dish looked like. This would be a simple thing to add in the next update of the site.
