Flash brings motion to pages and that motion/animation gets people pumped up. Sure, at first brush it’s great, but then you run into the problems of functionality and user wants. I’ll go into detail in another post, but for now, lets list what a user wants from your restaurant website.

1. What’s Cooking? Obviously, a first timer wants to know what’s on the menu. But that doesn’t mean you should have it plopped on a page as a PDF download. You need the menu on the actual page AND a PDF download. The menu on the page gets them the info right away. The PDF gives them a way to download it and print it for later. You need both.

2. What’s the Vibe? A first timer wants to know what the place looks like and what its vibe is like. Is it formal? Casual? Fun? Light? Manage expectations with photography of the locations and food, and also the design. A template website is going to look generic. A custom design will be tailored to deliver an expected vibe. That’s invaluable. This also plays into brand messaging.

3. Where are you? People want addresses and phone numbers. They want links to a map. Put these somewhere VERY obvious so people can find you quickly and easily.

4. What’s New? Is it fresh? Is the restaurant happening or did they put up a site and leave it at that. The site needs a news area. The site needs a way to feature new dishes and specials. Most importantly, the site needs updated frequently. This is prime reason for using a content management system tailored to restaurants like VIM.

4. Opportunities to Save. Now they want to see if they can save a little bit on their visit. They’ll look for ways on your site, on Twitter, Groupon, FourSquare and various other places. But why not just list them in one area? Put this info in one location for them to find and choose. Your goal with any discount program is to get them to visit then worry about increasing the ticket while they’re there.

5. Connect & Contact. Finally, then want to connect to you. They want you to talk to them. Do this through Facebook, Twitter and email. Give them the means to ask you to reach out then make sure you actually reach out!

Your visitors/users come first. You have to deliver what they want and get it to them quickly or you’ll lose them every time. Make sure these 5 elements are present on your restaurant’s website and win.

What are features you like seeing on a restaurant’s site? What features do you hate?

Here at Vigor, we’ve never taken a stance politically with our work. It seems politics and religion are just way to touchy and subjective for our tastes. However, here in Harrisburg we have a real race going on for the Mayoral seat. An incumbent is on the way out the door, but not without a fight. Another candidate has contributed to the negative state of the city in more ways than we can count. We believe in change and therefore felt the need to not only speak up, but actively help out the campaign. So, we officially launched the website for Harrisburg’s mayoral candidate, Nevin Mindlin. This is our first political website and probably our last for a long time. We also have no plans to take on religion-based initiatives.

The site is run on our content management system, VIM. This gives the campaign full control over updating and adding new content so the site remains fresh and up to date. The campaign volunteers can update the blog, events listings and galleries at will in addition to the other static pages of the site. This is especially important as the November 3rd date rapidly approaches.

Good luck Nevin, we support you!

Check out the site at www.aroogas.com

The new site features content completely maintained and edited via our proprietary content management system, VIM. With dynamic galleries, events listing and links to ecommerce, Ling’s artwork is finally displayed in all it’s glory. Enjoy.

Gallery features thumbnails, preview and large images all run from a Content Management System.

Website design for Chef Cyrus Keefer

Seasoned chef turned culinary consultant, Chef Cyrus Keefer, approached Vigor about creating the beginnings of a brand identity. Vigor quickly turned around a typographical logo design, website design and business cards to get him on his feet.

Visit the website: http://www.cyruskeefer.com

We have finally updated our image and redesigned our website. It’s been coming for years, but we buckled down and launched her yesterday. http://www.vigorbranding.com

We’ll be adding more work to the portfolio as well as expanding our service descriptions ongoing. Don’t forget to subscribe the email list when you get a chance.

Let us know what you think here on the blog!