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!

When you first get to the site, you’re greeted by your hostess, who starts asking you questions like how many are in your party and so forth. Even if you click the “enter Soleil @ K” you have to wait for her to get through her entire spiel before you can enter the site.

From there, you’ve got the long intro. Yes, you can skip the intro, but its still taking way to long to get to the menu. Then when you get into the restaurant you’re now greeted by your server, who asks you if you want to hear about their specials or see the wine list. For the love of all that is holy people! I just want to look at the freaking menu!

When I finally see the menu button, I’m taken to another page with PDF versions of the menu. There’s also a link that says “Click here to see special VIP offers.” But you don’t have to click on it, you just have to mouse over it, and a big-ol-pop up add explodes in your face and covers the menu options.

This was probably the most annoying and un-userfriendly site I’ve ever been to. It probably took me 20 minutes just to look at the menu, when it should have taken me no more than 10 if the site was designed better.

And the moral of the story dear children…sometimes less is more.

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.”

But wait! There’s more!

So, I still needed to go to Roy’s to get the gift card for my mom. I walked merrily all the way down to Sea Port Village, head into the lovely Roy’s restaurant…only to fidn out that their gift card system was down and I couldn’t get a gift card at that time. Seriously? I walked all the way down there for nothing? Yes, yes…I know I had intended to walk all the way down there and get some exercise, but I also intended on there being a reward at the end of that along walk! Now I just felt like I had wasted a bunch of time and there’s not much that irritates me more than that. The guy at Roy’s (who felt super bad about it) suggested I go to a restaurant called Flemings, whose gift cards could also be used at Roy’s. Again with the satiscficing! Now instead of my mom opening the gift on Christmas morning and saying “Oh Roy’s! We love going there! How thoughtful of our wonderful, sweet, intelligent, beautiful daughter!” she’s going to say “Oh…gee…that’s nice…where is this place?” and I’ll have to go through the explanation of what happened, rather than just being able to get what I want in one easy click!

And the moral of the story…satisficing and usability problems are found in many places besides the web…and call places to make sure they have what you want before you go all the way out there.

The end.

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.

Good Restaurant Usability

An example of good restaurant usability would be one of the many Busalacchi restaurants: Po Pazzo.

Po Pazzo has a little something for everyone. Its got a great bar with a nice big plasma TV to watch the game if that’s your thing, but the decor also has all the qualities of a fine dining restaurant. The staff are all wonderful people who make you feel part of their family…their big Italian family. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But Katie, that sounds like an expensive restaurant.” Well, Po Pazzo is on the fine dining side (with main entrees starting at the $15 range and going up from there), but that is why you take advantage of their wonderful happy hour! During Po Pazzo’s magical happy hour your drinks are on special, all their appetizers plus two main entrees of an amazing Angus burger and spaghetti and meatballs are all between $5-$7. Even though this is a fine dining place, everyone is welcome to stay and hang out as long as they want. This is the restaurant that Mr. Busalacchi of the Busalacchi restaurants comes to hang out and have a good time.

Bad Restaurant Usability

An example of bad restaurant usability would be Baun Appetito. Now don’t get me wrong, Baun Appetito is a great restaurant with really nice food, but there’s a bit of a problem with the server’s usability. While there with my parents, the waiter got all offended that my mom ordered the wine rather than my dad. After that he was very snarky with us, would only speak to my dad and poured him the last bit of wine without even asking if my mom and I wanted any more. What, is it 1910 or something? That seemed like bad usability on his part, because it colored my opinion on weather or not I want to eat there ever again(even though the food was good), and it certainly didn’t earn him a great tip.

And the Moral of the Story…

Usability translates into all aspects of life. Even something as simple as finding a nice place to eat for dinner.

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?

Well I’ll Tell you! By doing something like offering the user who is planning to drive while eating the lap-napkin, In-n-Out is catering to the users’ goal of scarfing down food while driving to their next location. Its a very simple thing to do, but it makes the users’ experience at the In-n-Out drive through that much more pleasant, and probably keeps them coming back. Perhaps the next time they’re faced with the dilemma of which fast food joint to go to fill their burger craving they’ll think, “well, McDonald’s isn’t considerate enough to offer me a lap napkin.”

The down side…

What could possibly be the down side of being able to enjoy my delicious double-double and animal style fries without having to worry about more of it ending up in my lap than my mouth? Well…driving and eating at the same time is not exactly the safest thing in the whole-wide-world. According to NYDaily News, 80% of all accidents on the road are caused by people eating while driving, and Insure.com lists burgers as the #5 most dangerous food to eat while driving.

So, while In-n-Out provides a great, user-friendly service to those who are planning to indulge their love for all things cheesy and greasy while driving, maybe the user should think twice before going with that option.

Top 10 Most Dangerous Things to Eat or Drink while Driving

Because I know you’re curious now…

• #10 Chocolate
• #9  Soda
• #8 Jelly Doughnuts
• #7 Fried Chicken
• #6 BBQ Foods
• #5 Burgers
• #4 Chili
• #3 Tacos
• #2 Hot Soups

And the #1 Most Dangerous thing to eat or drink while driving is…

• Hot Coffee!

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.