Site Check: Falafel Hut

[Dan.Linehan]

Just wanted to show off the site I finished last night.

Falafel Hut | Middle Eastern Cuisine | San Rafael, CA

[Dan.Linehan]

BTW the girl in the picture definitely hit on me after I told her she was going on the front of the site.

Hehehehe..

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Looks yummy (both food and the site).

Aw, Dan, just tell her I have laid claim to you already .

[Doku]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Just wanted to show off the site I finished last night.

You are "finished" ?? There is text for a menu link, but no actual link.

[Dan.Linehan]

Yeah, scanning in the menu now.

Also need to use alt tags for all the images for accessibility.

[ticktockclok]

Good looking site. I like the color scheme.

Did you hand code it or use Dreamweaver/Expression?

[Dan.Linehan]

Thanks Tick-Tock. It's hand-coded.

I've been using css templates for jumping off points. That seems to work really well, and it keeps things simple.

Sometimes I'll grab from template world too, I bought the year long subscription and its been really handy at odd times.

[TomStaijen]

Well I suppose you want honest opinion. Here's mine, but it is a taste matter so if you rather ignore it, i can't blame you.

I am not an artist but have made a few dozen websites freelancing. For me, designing a site starts with finding out what the layout should express. I have visited a lot of websites to try to define a link (mostly personal probably) between layout and the impression it gives the user about the subject of the websites, in this case: a diner.

For some reason, the combination of the two colors you are using does not tempt me to go there and get some falafel. Maybe the colors are a bit boring, which gives me the impression the place is a sterile takeaway without atmosphere (and even though it might be, i doubt that is what you want to profile the place as).

If you go for this red and the creamy color, i'd suggest either emphazising with black lines inbetween, or maybe rather different shades of that reddish color, like using a darker red line between the red and the cream.

Then again, these almost pastel (might be a dutch word) colors - or rather the lighter ones - express consiseness and professionality. I tempt to choose these for corporate websites.

To express taste food and good (friendly) atmosphere, I'd rather go for more happy colors. More reddish red, bit more yellow in the cream, maybe a bright color green decorations (leafs?).

I'd go for a picture of a person REALY enjoying a falafal on the frontpage, or a nice picture of just the food or no picture at all, or a picture of someone preparing the falafel (I rly enjoyed looking at that when i was in Israel having my daily falfel). The picture you are using now scares me a bit: the sun isnt shining which doesn't make me happy at all; it's not very busy, inside the place it is rather dark, and i don't see a lot of customers.

Just some thoughts, no bad intended! just my taste

[Dan.Linehan]

Thanks for the feedback Tom!

I am not a designer. Or rather, I am too perfectionistic with design, and really put my identity into it, so I now avoid doing it with client work. Nothing like pouring your soul into a design to have the customer make you totally redo it.

I used the current color scheme simply because they were already in use on the existing signage.

Personally, I like the front picture, and the graphics on top. It feels like they are handing you food right outta the header.

I am going to redo the menus in HTML I think. I don't think they look that good.

[Dan.Linehan]

Hmmm.

I added a few reviews (with lots of awesome pics.)

Falafel Hut | Middle Eastern Cuisine | San Rafael, CA

[Lil Chris]

Looks good, I might consider padding the text just a little bit...

Like on this page Falafel Hut | Middle Eastern Cuisine | San Rafael, CA the text goes all the way over to the right edge where the vertical lines are and some of the last letters get cut off.

[WanderingOak]

The map insert doesn't work very well in Firefox on OSX, I noticed. It shows a street grid but does not pinpoint the location unless you go to Google Maps.