I love food and wine. I’m one of those people that I can’t just go to a restaurant, get the menu, and pick something right then and there. No sir, I need to look at the menu BEFORE I even get there in order to make an informed choice before I even get there. The web is my best friend in this, because I can merrily go onto any restaurant’s site and (usually) see their menu and drink list right away. I don’t need to be there for very long. Just pop on the site, take a quick gander at the menu and head off to the restaurant feeling informed.
However some restaurant sites are moving to more of a flash based format. Now I know flash has its place in the web (movie and music sites for sure), but I’m not so sure about flash sites for restaurants because it doesn’t make it a quick, easy process…or at least the flash site for the down town restaurant Soleil at K didn’t
Just the Menu Please…no fluff needed!
Continue reading Flashy-mic-flash-flash →
I did a lot of satisficing while Christmas shopping for my parents the other day. My mother wanted a gift card to a restaurant inside of the Hilton Bay Front downtown by the harbor. I drove there with the intent of parking down in that general area, going to the Hilton for my mom’s gift, and then walking down to Sea Port Village to get a gift card for my dad for Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Restaurant. It was going to be great. I was going to walk from the Hilton over to Roy’s (about a mile) and then back to my car (another mile or so), it was a beautiful day, I was going to get shopping done and get some exercise at the same time. Life was good.
When the Satisficing Started
When I got to the Hilton Bayfront (after I got over my shock of it being probably the most beautiful hotel I’ve ever seen) learned that the restaurant I wanted to get the gift card for didn’t have gift cards. I thought perhaps if I just got a gift card for the Hilton hotel itself that would take care of the problem. Well, seems that the Hilton doesn’t do gift cards at all. WTF?! Who the heck doesn’t do gift cards these days? And a huge company like the Hilton? Seemed a little ridiculous to me. So I ended up changing my plan, and decided to get my mom the gift card to Roy’s instead and get my dad a gift card for the Fox Sports Grill close to the Hilton. Still a great Christmas Gift that I know he’ll love, but I was “setteling for okay, when best was not readily available.”
While in Little Italy visiting my sister, I walked by the multiple restaurants the area has to offer and thought about their usability. Aside from a very few restaurants (such as the English pub Princess Pub, Burger Lounge, and the Indigo Grill), India Street is lined up with Italian restaurant after Italian restaurant. Even though they are the same kind of cuisine, there is definitively a difference in the usability of the restaurants.
So, I was at In-n-Out last night getting a cheeseburger for my boyfriend (because I’m an awesome girlfriend like that), and I did something I never do…I went through the drive through *gasp*. While talking into the speaker, the disembodied voice on the other end asked me if I would be eating while driving. I said no; a bit confused because I’d never been asked that before. The person in the car ahead of me must have been planning on eating in their car, because not only were they handed their food, but also a big, huge paper napkin that I’ve learned is referred to in In-n-Out lingo as a “lap napkin.” Their thought is that this oversize napkin will save people eating while driving from all the veggies in the burger from spilling out the back of the bun and landing on the person’s pants. I was intrigued by this very simple, yet thoughtful addition to the drive-in experience.
What the heck does this have to do with Usability?
Continue reading In-n-Out and Usability →
I got sent home from work yesterday pretty much the moment I got there. Apparently someone had seen a man walk into the middle school across the street from my office carrying two rifles. There were cop cars up and down the streets, a police helicopter flying overhead, and officers both in and out of plain sight. My boss wasn’t comfortable with the fact there were two cops with very large rifles standing right outside my office. Stray bullets from any fire that could be exchanged would end up right where I’d be sitting, so I was told to flee for safety while I still could.
As it turns out the whole ting was a false alarm. The man with the rifles was a teacher at the the school who brought in prop rifles for his lecture on the Revolutionary War. I’m sure he feels awful for causing such a commotion, but on the plus side he did get me out of work the the day. For that, good sir, I thank you, because you gave me the opportunity to spend the afternoon in my favorite place in all of San Diego: Balboa Park.
Balboa Park was built for the 1915 Expedition, a Worlds Fair taking place in San Diego, and has since becoming of the the jewels of the city. Of course some aspects of the park have changed over the years (Zoro Garden is no longer a nudist colony for example), but the beautiful architecture, tranquil gardens, and relaxing atmosphere have remained. There’s so much to see and do in Balboa Park: museums to visit, gardens to explore, restaurants to try, and with the San Diego Zoo next door, it would be impossible for anyone to come to the park and say they were bored senseless. But you know, sometimes boring isn’t so bad. I had a wonderfully lazy afternoon sitting at the Tea Pavilion at the Japanese Friendship Garden, sipping my Jasmine Phoenix Tea, listening to the organ player practicing in the Organ Pavilion, and watching the world go by around me. It was a perfect afternoon off in my favorite place.
My family has a deeply rooted history in Balboa Park. My grandfather and great-grandfather hand a hand in building it. When my sister and I were younger grandpa would take us to the park every week, and tell us the same stories of hew he and great-grandpa helped build the Botanical Building, and show us the same waterfall that he himself had built. I remember being six and listening to the stories thinking, “can we PLEASE go to the zoo and see the tigers now?” But now that I’m and adult and grandpa is gone I understand just how special that was, and just how much this place means to me. Whenever I hear the bells from the California Tower, I know that I am home.
Hi there! I’m Katie, and I’m very excited to share my blog with you. I’ve been wanting to start blogging for awhile now, and this portfolio seems a good a time to start as any! I think of the things I love to do; hike, travel, go to great restaurants, spend time in my beloved home-town of San Diego, and write, and thought to myself, “Self! Why not put all those things together?” So here is where I will write about the places I go, whether they be in San Diego or anywhere in this big wide world (hopefully some day I’ll write a blog about New Zealand. Some day I will go there and see Middle-Earth!), and the great people I spend time with. I’m so excited to start writing! There are so many places and restaurants I feel like I need to tell the world about, but I’ll try to pace myself. I hope through these blogs you’ll see how much I love this city, how much there is to love about it. Where to begin…
