About
Papermoon Diner (PapermoonDiner24.com) is an iconic Baltimore diner, not only for its food but also the quirky ambiance and eccentric design they’ve implemented all through out the restaurant. Papermoon Diner has been featured in many national restaurant magazine and TV shows.
Challenges
Website: Papermoon Diner had been using a Flash-based website for many years, which significantly reduced their findability—both from search engines. Creating a non-Flash website was top priority for SEO, iOS users, and overall performance.
Menu: Papermoon updates their menu frequently to provide new experiences for their customers. Since the previous website was Flash based it created a challenge in updating–with no Flash developer on staff. Having the ability to quickly update their menu on the site meant they can focus on what matters most: the diner and its customer.
Mobile: Having a mobile friendly site was important for the customers on the move–also acknowledging the increased trend of mobile device usage. The website had to provide fast access to their hours, directions, and menu—all within a few clicks.
Weekly Specials: Every week the head chef and the management will come up with the weekly special. The challenge was to come up with a solution on how to share the weekly special with other cooks to maintain consistency in both taste and visual presentation.
Solutions
Website and Mobile: We went with a full photo website to exhibit the diner’s colorful energy and electric decor and their succulent food. We also created a whole content from ground-up to be shorter and yet convey full-filling information. Here is a before and after of the website. The site was coded using responsive design to address the mobile users.
Menu: First Papermoon wanted a separate menu webpage. Then we talked about the labor and time it requires to maintain that page and decided to take another route. We noticed Papermoon exported their menu in a PDF for their printed menu. Using the same PDF now they directly upload to the server and update it instantly.
Weekly Special: This took a bit of thinking, but came with a simple solution, use WordPress as a database. We got a refurbished iPad to show the cooks how the special should be prepared. Then we reuse the same image for Facebook to advertise their weekly specials.
Roles and Technical Notes
- Designed and developed the website using PHP, HTML and CSS. Incorporated responsive design for mobile user.
- Browser compatibility: IE7 to IE9, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera
- Trained their staff in new workflow–to keep their social media and weekly special up to date–by using Dropbox, Google Drive, and introduction to food photography.
- Responsible for whole new photography approach used for the website, weekly special, and marketing.
- Google Page Speed: 94 (out of 100)