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Whew! I didn't tweet a reply but I thought the PDF thing was absolute fail,

I was expecting some kind of html5-meets-yelp customer meetingplace and recommendation engine : )

Most of the identified issues with the site can be overcome while maintaining the graphics – which are beautiful, and clearly custom. Accessibility for the blind and accessibility for a search engine can be fulfilled via similar code and process.

This is actually pretty typical of a lot of 'local venue' websites for first-time site builds. Owner/operators tend to learn over time to take issues like SEO, extensibility of content (such as adding the live music calendar – where would that fit within the navigation as defined by the present graphic?), and even accessibility.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that the site has a lot of shortcomings, but based on your description of the events leading up to you finding the site, it sounds like they got the exact customer they were looking for – someone who is in the area of the restaurant on a daily basis and needs to make a snap judgement.

The site has a long way to go, for sure, but it's not hopeless. You were a qualified lead and they got you to come in. That's gotta count for something, right?

Restaurants love their PDF files. As a designer, I've tried to convince owners to put their menus on the actual pages and not in a PDF, but they won't. Why? Because they need their menus in two places – online and printed in their restaurants (obviously).

The problem is that there's no easy way for them to have this without changing the menu in 2 places – with different layouts. They don't want to update it in their CMS (or Dreamweaver or FrontPage or whatever God-awful tool they use to mangle their sites because they didn't want to spring for a real CMS) and update in in their layout program like InDesign… I mean… Microsoft Word.

A database? Forget it. They can barely manage Microsoft Word. So, they just make a PDF of their print menu.

In a way, I understand. They have restaurants to run. But that's not really an excuse. They know they shouldn't have them as PDF files (at least my clients do). They just don't seem to care.

So, we end up with a Word doc sent through a FAX, printed on a napkin, Xeroxed and made into a PDF. Or whatever. Enjoy.

Great example of how the “If it looks good on my one screen, it’s good to go” way of doing things doesn’t cut it!

Maybe you were channeling your internal 1999. This site would have been super cool in '99.

It's especially clever of them to hide the directions to the restaurant in the rollover on the sign graphic.

I think there's an important point here, though: pleasure isn't equal to best practice. Sure, the site isn't well built. It doesn't have all the features it “should” have. But you still enjoyed it. You weren't wrong. Sometimes, that's worth the tradeoff.

I love this site, too, Kristina. SEO and and most of the accessibility issues could be fixed easily with proper alt tags and link text that hides behind the image. People who have low moderate vision would still have trouble, though. It wouldn't be clear to them that there was any text to enlarge.

It would be neat if the menu could be in html with several different stylesheets used — one to produce a simple printed version (for the customer to print at home) and another to produce a second, elaborate printed version (for the restaurant's menus). Wouldn't that be a neat package for a Web developer to offer a client?

I noticed one interesting thing about the SEO. If you search for “ginger hop,” this restaurant is the top hit. Why? Because search engines are starting to pay attention to the words used in Web addresses, and the closer the word is to the domain name, the more important it is determined to be. So with a domain name of gingerhop.com, this site gets a very high ranking. I don't know if content can dilute the impact of the domain name, but even if it can there is no content on this site to do so.

More important, though? You nailed the take-home lesson. It's easy for us to get wowed by a great experience and forget that we're not everyone.

Yep, agreed. The title of my post is a little tongue-in-cheek. For who I am, what I know about the restaurant, and what I need when I visit the site, it's a great experience. But, I wonder, what exactly *is* the trade-off? For me, nothing. For the restaurant, probably plenty.

Thanks for sharing this, Sean–you make some great points. It's a tough call, sometimes: as a site owner, do I value my own time and effort more than my potential customers'?

I'll send you a handwritten note by carrier pigeon later.

Yes. It absolutely qualifies for something. That said, I think that they could widen the net significantly with a few of the simple improvements other folks have described.

It's not that it's not okay for me to like the site (see: attention-grabbing post title). It's just that there was a good lesson to be learned in the process of others chiming in with their perspectives.

One point I think is worth mentioning here – we can all comment on all the glorious things this business could/should do with the site, but let's remember also a core idea (from Kristina's book at that): You have to plan your site with an eye to the maintenance and governance you are able to do, and the resources you have to do so – labor and money.

For many small non-IT businesses focused on staying in business, getting a website up is a big deal, and as noted, got someone in the door. We need to be careful to walk a mile in our customer's shoes. I run a website for my small business, on top of being billable with clients – ALL our work is referral based, which keeps us very busy, popular, and happy. Could we have a more sophisticated web look? Yes, but given what we know about our market, it probably wouldn't bring in all that much more business.

Readers, do not neglect pragmatism on your way to web glory.

Kristina, great post. I admire anyone who writes when they were wrong about something and why – it's a great learning tool, and you deserve much credit for style and substance – across the board. Kudos.

I've read only one opinion on this blog about Ginger Hop's website that I think has merit and that was given with Halvorson's first impression of the site.

She's the only one who went to the site to actually use it.

The difference between use and critique seems easily the difference between forest and trees.

Google Maps suggests that Ginger Hop's owner or owners could perhaps be quite happy to serve a fraction of the potential customers within a one block radius who are average in profile and who know no more of the business than type of business, name, and location.

That suggest that either by accident or design the business knows the intended maximal audience of its website.

In passing.

If Ginger Hop is happy with never having any customers who are unlike their current customers in any way, I guess “In passing” is right. If it were me, I would want as many people as possible to be aware of my business.

Perhaps that's just me. Still, I wonder: How long could they expect to prosper with this approach?

Dunno… you can't please all the people all the time. I'm overwhelmed by the idea of optimizing for PDAs and iPhones.

Kristina – great example. As a B2B marketer I get kind of used to 'catering' for different audiences – B2B websites need to provide the right experience for technical, financial, marketing and all kinds of other audiences that are involved in the purchasing decision. But then again, this is just a different way of defining how individuals differ. Thanks for highlighting the point.
Thanks for posting, John

Ginger Hop's website is distinct and kind of fun. I admit that it could use a few refined tweaks to aid usability, but I do like it. And I think that sometimes extensive copy isn't necessary if the website works. Thinking creatively, practically, and simply can be refreshing.

Despite the oversights of the website, most people have pointed out that these issues are easily overcome. It really speaks to the diversity of the websites we’ve dealt with online when everyone is able to offer a helpful potential solution. Kristina, I really liked your comment that said, “It’s just that there was a good lesson to be learned in the process of others chiming in with their perspectives.”

It’s how we grow, and it’s a perfect use of social media and blogging. If Ginger Hop is listening, I’m sure they just received enough advice to keep their web master busy for a few weeks. Yet the advice was free and came from a diverse demographic that offered constructive solutions. It’s absolutely splendid communication and unsolicited “user research.”

Also, something I noticed as I clicked around is that the website actually does have a music calendar. The music is through Honey Lounge, which seems to be located in Ginger Hop. But getting to the calendar requires clicking on the Honey signpost, which takes you off the website to Honey Lounge’s homepage. Therein is the music calendar. This isn’t very intuitive, but it is there.

The website would benefit from some mild redundancy so that things can be found through textual links or obvious icons even if people don’t click around the page. This might also help improve mobile viewing as well.