Home page look like a restaurant menu?

[serrano]

Thought I would share this useful article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/21/menus-cunning-marketing-ploys) in today's paper - all about restaurant menus but how much of the same applies to your web pages... its worth a read.

Any thoughts?

[fisicx]

The very first point of the article is wrong. People always begin top left not top right and then follow the classic F. His model only works if the image is top right. Put it in the middle and that's where the customer will look first.

Some of his points can be applied though as they are marketing standards and apply to all sorts of things. Including your local tesco, ticket office and comopany notice board.

[bdw]

I agree EWD.

Website researchers create "heat maps", which show where most people eyes land on a page of content and this is always top left because that's how we read. However the presence of an image can affect it as eyes are drawn to images before text.

This is quite an interesting topic but the main difference is that people who go into a restaurant, particularly for "fine dining", are fully prepared to spend perhaps up to 15 minutes looking at the menu before deciding what they want. People who land on a webpage spend no more than about 5 seconds deciding if the content is what they are looking. If it does not immediately look like what they need they click the back button.

:( It's much tougher for we web designers unfortunately.:(

[awebapart.com]

On a similar subject, I'm sometimes very impressed by the artistic flair and nice presentation I see in simple coloured chalk on blackboard notices/specials menus in local pubs, and I sometimes think "they're better than a lot of website designs".

[fisicx]

I agree, there are some really impressive examples of great design that work beautifully in their particular setting but just wouldn't translate well to a website.

This is just one example: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/07/table-of-contents-creative-and-beautiful-examples/

I've experimented with all sorts of exotic website navigation systems but none of them work. The mindset of the visitor is very different to othe one reasding a book or magazine.