Baffling!

Website design is an imprecise art and not a science, but restaurant websites in particular seem peculiarly prone to cack-handed design.

My first pick in this intermittent series highlighting dopey restaurant websites has to be Dinings. Although the restaurant itself serves sublime food, its online presence seems to have been designed by someone who’s trying to be too clever for their own good.

Aggravating.

The website is divided into a grid of pictures with each picture acting as a link to more information. The text explaining what each link is only appears when you hover your mouse cursor over the picture – impossible on a smartphone or tablet.

The tiny, barely legible grey-on-white address and phone number aren’t actually text but graphics, so they can’t be copied and pasted into an email or text or, in the case of the number, tapped on to make a reservation if viewed on a smartphone. Navigation is haphazard, the entire thing can appear tiny on a high resolution screen and useful information such as the address and opening hours don’t appear on the front page and are tucked away out of sight.

Given its high prices, Dinings should have more than enough money to hire a proper designer and coder to rework its hateful website.

TPG