Menu Design and Lay-out for Delivery Service
Being aware of the challenges of the business model you are running, the main characteristics of your customers, and once you have defined the list of dishes or options to offer -after having evaluated all the issues needed to guarantee a great food quality experience in the delivery service- (see discussion on our post Delivery and Take-away Food. The Menu, Choosing the Players), it is time to design The Menu, that “document” or graphic material through which your guests or customers will know what you have to offer them. Again, there are “details” that we recommend taking into consideration, and these are the following:
The menu must have an order, a logic so that its "exploration" is intuitive for the customer. It can be structured in dishes by type of content: meat, pasta, fish, etc. or by type of cooking. You could also use the more classic: Appetizer, Entree and Dessert. There are menus with the same functionality and specialized in a theme such as: wine menu, dessert menu, etc. This will depend on the type of business you lead, your Clients, what you offer, etc. Keep in mind that in the Delivery Menu, you need to keep as concise as tactically allowed and readable friendly as possible: Choose a font that can be easily understood and a language similar to the one your customers have.
Pay attention to your dishes’ descriptions. In the Delivery Service, there will be no Waitress to assist your customer while reading the Menu. Remember that the moment your customer interacts with your Menu is also an opportunity to transmit your message, your essence. Think about your audience and ensure that the dishes are described in a way that arouses curiosity to try them, help them differentiate your product from your competitors’ and most importantly, help them remember you and search the web looking for you using that same language and key words that stick to their mind and pallard.
The “sweet spot”. Many experts in human behavior, and “menu engineers” in our industry, agree that when people scan a document (like a menu), their eyes tend to look first toward its upper right-hand corner, known in the industry as the “sweet spot.” As a result, many restaurants place the menu item they want to sell most (often an expensive dish) in that location. Newspapers and magazines use this kind of behavior analysis too. In fact, ads pricing depends on the page (left or right) and location within it for this reason. That is true for print and hand out material. The Delivery menu is a different story. In the web, we have a heavy tendency to see and play more attention to the left side of the screen, and we tend to read in a “F” shape. So, if you want to sell something, not only add a beautiful image or video, but also place it, as the web search engines result, to the left upper side of the screen, and remember the F, not large texts, but short sentences that would captivate their attention to visually scroll down your menu.
The “eye magnets.” An eye magnet is just any element used to attract the eye or someone’s attention. It could be a photo of the dish, a graphic or a nice illustration, a special border, a symbol related to your brand, different color or type of typography, etc. Eye magnets are used to highlight a dish or to emphasize some information in your Menu. Do not overuse it because overstimulation makes lose the desired effect. Please use it, if you want customers to pay attention to a call of action that would allow them to move forward in their purchase process and close the deal with your products.
Photos are a very useful resource for what “a picture is worth more than 1,000 words”. Research has proven that a product image may increase its sales up to 30%. However, it is not required to include them in a traditional Menu. If you want to include photos, never use too many and make sure they are of good quality. They do not necessarily have to be taken by a professional photographer, but it is important that the angle, the light and the saturation of the colors are adequate. Also be careful with sharpness and shadows. It is true that we want the photo to be beautiful and eye-catching, but the main thing is that it shows the “real” product and not only the result of the retouching of a photograph, otherwise, it would be something similar to misleading advertising. And here is an important thing to consider in the Delivery menus: Dine-in food pictures or To-Go containers food pictures.
Colors. Just like aromas, different colors -depending on intensity and tones- can motivate different behaviors. There is psychology of colors used in interior design and also recommended when dressing up for a job interview or a special occasion. Moreover, in some cultures, the use of specific colors are forbidden or reserved for groups of people or even religious purposes. Therefore, using colors is not as trivial as many might think. For example, for western culture Blue usually inspires tranquility, trust. Yellow is related to happiness, puts people in a good mood. Orange stimulates the appetite and is related to friendship, while Green makes customers think of fresh, local ingredients and relaxation; Red grabs people’s attention but be careful because it’s a very strong color, and is also related to anger, and so on. You may try different color combinations using the traditional “color wheel model” or apps that make it easier for you, and see what works best. Keep in mind the colors of your brand, harmony is extremely important in this regard.
There are minimum elements that must be part of the content that you must include in the Menu for your take-away or Delivery business model:
Name of the Restaurant: this is your brand, it has to be in the right place and size.
Name of dishes / products: the more original, the better.
Description of the Dishes: inviting, palatable, but simple and short.
Contact information (phone, e-mail, website): this is a must. Otherwise, how can there be a next time?
Address: they might want to get to know “the original” place.
Social networks and Food ordering and Delivery platforms where your Menu is available. Too often, especially when using this service your brand exposure gets limited, so look for ways to take the word out there that the menu is yours.
Price: there are different opinions about including prices or not. Some people think it is a matter of transparency to include prices in the menu. On the other hand, others think prices have a negative implicit connotation, representing “a pain”. So, for them, including prices is a problem because customers will focus on them instead of focusing on the food and that will be their criteria when choosing what to eat. This is why they even recommend that in case you have to include prices, you do it without the money symbol, just using the numbers.
Relevant information: indicate information of special interest to dinners, such as intensity of spiciness of foods, presence of different allergens (gluten, lactose, soy, nuts, etc.)
Publishing the Menu:
Last but not least, it is time for publishing the Menu. The first thing to decide is whether or not you will send it to the print shop or if on the contrary, your menu will only be available in digital format - which in times of Pandemic is increasingly common. You also will need to consider if your menu will be part of a third party food delivery service application such as UberEats, DoorDash, GrubHub, to name some of them.
As important as to select the colors to be used, the quality of the paper, and where you are printing your menu, it is paramount that you also keep up to date the menu you have on all your digital platforms.
Since having a small selection of your wider offer, is recommended for your online menu, keep in mind we are all experimenting with what does and do not work in the online business model. So, don’t be afraid to pull products out of your online menus -especially if they are not selling- and substitute them for others. Be innovative! Ask your customers their opinions and most importantly, pay attention to their comments and answers.
In addition, we also recommend that you adapt both your Restaurant menu and the Delivery menu to be seen through a QR Code or online menu services that will allow your customers to have, in their own cell phones, your full offering list. This way your business will not only adapt to new technologies, but also reduce contact by manipulation, labor cleaning and sanitizing contact areas. Moreover, by eliminating print outs, you will be much more dynamic doing changes to your menu and at the same time you’ll be helping the Planet in reducing waste, chemicals and reducing shores for your already limited personnel.
We hope this review helps you the next time you decide to design the Menu for your Restaurant or improve the look and feel of your Menu online! Would you like to share your experience or opinions? Please, do!!!