Here at Studiothink, we love food. Designers fight each other (safely with Nerf guns, of course) for the chance to design our next food packaging project. Contests are planned and held to see who can cook the tastiest chili, or bake the better cookie. Many lunch hours are spent swapping reviews of local restaurants, wines, and recipes. I've even been known to dig through Mike's lunchbox and evaluate the packaging of his granola bars and yogurt.

Our love for food and, subsequently, need of a diet plan has led us to many websites to peruse the menus or count the calories of our favorite local grub. Doing so has led us to several websites for well-established restaurants that are surprisingly lacking in content, design, and implementation. Here are just a few restaurant websites that, for whatever reason, aren't using the full potential of their branding, reputation, and design.

Subway Restaurants - http://www.subway.com
Outdated and strangely cluttered, this website does very little to connect with Subway's current campaign or long-term company culture. Multiple bright colours compete for importance while wall-to-wall text on the inside pages, poorly placed images and lack of any layout or organized flow confuses users. A flash feature advertising their latest promo sits awkwardly on the page trying its best to attract our attention. This site seems to ignore customers and primarily speak to potential franchise owners, doing little to express the culture and character of Subway and their products.

Compare this with: Mr. Sub (http://www.mrsub.ca). Clean, organized, and attractive with a solid, well-chosen colour scheme. The food is front and centre, and they don't try to shove too much information your way, giving visitors the option to choose to view the customer or franchisee information.

KFC Canada - http://www.kfc.ca
When I asked around the office for suggestions for this article, both Mike and Rob immediately offered "KFC Canada!" It seems both were feeling a hankering for KFC lately and went to the website to browse the various ways they could get their chicken fix when the search had to come to a quick and sad end: the website has no menu at all. A garbled image of the colonel? Sure. Quick, meaningless links to advertising? Check. A menu and pricing? Who needs that? Their latest food feature goes to a nicely designed website, and their careers page is obviously extended from the US site, but as it stands, kfc.ca is a woefully empty site that squanders a lot of potential.

Compare this with: KFC USA (http://www.kfc.com). Though similar in design, the US website of KFC is lightyears ahead of the Canadian version. First, a menu. Not the most in-depth, but at least it shows you your options. Next, a key feature many consumer-oriented websites should have - opportunities for interactivity: Join the "Grilled Nation", tweet about KFC products to win a prize, or order things online. More content, stronger call-outs, and a flash feature allow this site to communicate effectively.

Sammy J. Peppers - http://www.sjpeppers.com
Though not as large as the two previous restaurants, SJP boasts 7 locations in Lower Mainland and has been established for over 13 years, so there's no excuse for not making the most of their website. Where are the lifestyle shots? Young, happy models smiling around a table? Young, smiling servers offering you a seat? Closely cropped shots of delicious food? Sammy J. Peppers has a lot of character and culture to work with, but it is sadly lacking in this site. Another no-no: Menus only offered in PDF format. Users want to access information as quickly as possible, and forcing them to download and open a PDF is an unnecessary step. Keep a well-designed, easy-to-access menu on the website itself, and provide a PDF for those who want the option of printing it out.

Compare this with: Nearly any other local restaurant. Earls, Cactus Club, White Spot, Milestones - they all share the same qualities of a great restaurant website. Bright, beautiful photos of food, friends, and fun, a well designed interface, attractive graphics, and an easy-to-read menu.

The point here isn't to overly criticize someone else's design, but rather to point out a mistake many companies make when creating a website. Don't just get a website for the sake of being online. Figure out who your customers are, what they're looking for, and how you can connect with them using your company's culture and branding. Our goal is not to pick on people, but to make the web a better place.