— c47 Bistro —
Website redesign
duration : 6 weeks | solo project
C47 Bistro is based on an aircraft-themed restaurant located at the Santa Monica Airport. The restaurant pays homage to the Douglas Aircraft factory which once occupied a portion of land upon which the Santa Monica Airport now sits.
Because their website isn’t responsive for mobile devices and uses outdated layouts, it was the perfect candidate for a redesign.
This website redesign taps into that aviation history while shedding the outdated 1990s look and feel of the original site. It playfully brings the site into the 21st century while showcasing the quality food and welcoming decor found at the restaurant.
Video: Desktop/Laptop View
Screens
Video: Mobile view
Because web design in the 90s didn’t predict the future world of mobile devices, those site designs are difficult to read on mobile. So aside from giving this website a fresher, more contemporary look, it also needed to be made responsive in order to accommodate the numerous and varied devices people now use.
Original vs Redesign: A Comparison
The following side-by-side comparisons explicitly show how the redesign has changed from the original website.
Home Page
The new Home page accomplishes a couple of things beyond the aesthetics: It uses a “call to action” to promote their Happy Hour, and it adds an additional section for location and hour information so users can quickly see when the restaurant is open.
CSS animations (both for the roundel and the airplane), as well as the microinteractions found on the links, are used to help add interest to the site.
CSS Animation: Roundel
CSS Animation: Airplane
Microinteraction: Links
Gallery
By showcasing people and decor (not just food), the images give users a better sense of the restaurant’s atmosphere.
Menu
Menu items are now located directly on the page (instead of having them appear as individual PDFs on separate tabs/pages). Not only is this more convenient for users, it also allows the restaurant to more easily update their menu.
Using simple javascript, navigation under the menu reduced the amount of real estate used for the menu section.
Contact/Hours/Location
The structure remains similar, but social media was added, and a more readable hierarchy for “Location” and “Hours” was employed to help users more easily scan the information.
sitemaps
Original Sitemap (above)
Proposed Sitemap (above)
wireframes
