After looking through many of the websites, I went with my original inclination, Chipotle. This was my original site of choice primarily because I love the restaurant but with more thought because of their advertising design. Lucky for me, I found that I really enjoyed this sight more than any other.
The Chipotle site is very simple and clean looking. This is basically what the designer was trying to accomplish. The site is trying to communicate a simplicity and freshness in the restaurant and the food. If that wasn't conveyed well enough through the design those words are actually written in the site menu and opening mission statement. There is a wonderful use of white space on the screen which gives a great sense of cleanliness. For the images and text that is shown there is a good use of unity in the few number of colors used throughout all of the pages. Since the colors are dark (dark red and black) they contrast nicely with the white background and make it easy to read to page.
The simplicity of this site, it is quite easy for a browser to navigate through. Even my mother, who is quite computer illiterate could find her way through the Chipotle site (if she could only find her way to the site to start with). It is crucial that this site is easy to navigate through since it is made for the everyday citizen. There are many people out there who are very bad when it come to the common sense to find what they are looking for on the internet. This site makes it very clear, especially in its new campaign "Don't Stand in Line." One of the first things to pop up and move across the screen in a large burrito that shows the "Don't Stand in Line" slogan on it. To make it even easier it says "Click Here. Honestly, how easy can it get?
In the first few seconds on the site, I was a bit scared there was going to be too much use of flash in the entire thing. It turns out that I was wrong, and for the best. The animation at the beginning was just the right length and size. The designer was able to create a little complexity without taking away from the general simplicity. The use of Flash was apparent in the previously mentioned "Don't Stand in Line" button. It is actually a pretty humorous opener to have a big silver burrito float across the screen. This short length of animated humor is actually taken throughout the site. In many of the links within the menus a quick animation is shown and then the text can be read. Having animation on every screen can be overwhelming but I think that the designers did a good job in the sense that the picture became static one the text was presented. Organizing it in such a manner gives the browser a little entertainment and then allows them to read without confusion and interruption. Along with the Flash program there seems to be a good use of CSS. Using CSS in the site really helps pull everything together. The site becomes more consistent and allows elements of text to fit well and identify with each other.
Besides the chipotle website having a menu bar with the main page links at the top of the first page, there is also a secondary menu in the upper left hand corner for smaller linking pages. These menus offered two pages that I found very intriguing; these were the "line" button in the upper menu and the "play" button in the side menu. Both of these pages had good browser interaction available. In the "line" page, the browsers could move the mouse around the page to see exactly what was in each ingredient that could be put in the burrito. In the "play" page, the browser was given the chance to look at all of the advertisements the Chipotle Company uses. The viewer clicks on a square and a side picture pops up; it was also very smart to change the color of the square once it was hit. There are about 150 different pictures and it would be very frustrating to keep clicking the same box repeatedly. Incorporating the viewers into the design of the site is very important. The advertisements, for example, were very clever and kept me entertained and on the one specific page for about five minutes. The longer a company can keep a browser on the page the better.
When is comes to computer compatibility, it seems like the designer was able to achieve a site that could be viewed in many different screen sizes. All of the visuals are on the left side of the screen with plenty of room to be able to view from a small screen. Due to the animations, there could be a problem when it comes to modem speeds. I did however look at the site from three different locations, including my home which tends to have a slow internet connection, and the site ran smoothly.
I found this site very fun to visit. I actually showed it to a couple of my friends and my roommates (who all share my love of Chipotle's food). I was completely memorized by the interaction of the site, which it tends to have more of than the normal fast food website. I liked the simple aesthetics and felt that is communicated the intended message of freshness and simplicity in the food. I see a challenge for the site to get customers to keep visiting because the menu never changes and there is never limited time menu offers to publicize but highlighting the "Don't Stand in Line" slogan throughout the site gives it a purpose; easily ordering online is a great reason to keep coming back to the site. For me, it is not the ordering online however, it is the advertisements that are going to keep me coming back.
Check it our yourself.....get addicted:
http://www.chipotle.com
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