1. Appropriate layout of the menu
A menu should be reasonably arranged according to the browsing order of customers, which will directly affect the sales of dishes in the store. Generally, customers will check your menu in the following order:
Their first focus would be the upper middle menu. Whether everyone’s menu format is vertical, horizontal, or multi-page, the most important position for all the menus is the middle of the top one-third of the menu.
The right side of the first focal. Remember that customers’ reading habits are usually from left to right. When they have checked the first focus, logically, they will turn to the left side of it.
Then the first and second lines on the left. After reading the main points, customers usually come back to read again in a normal mode, from the top left corner of the body of the menu to the bottom.
Below the headline. Their sight will quickly fall on the headlines below the menu, such as “main course”, “appetizer,” or “beverage items.”In the handling of the titles, you can design them as small menus in the main menu.
Back side of the menu. The first thing some people do when they get the menu is to look at the back (which is important for special offers).
So, when designing the menu, you should place the signature dishes in the first focus place, and put the special dishes on the back side. The most appropriate menu layout is often related to the order of customers ‘eating, and grasping the order is equivalent to catching the psychological thoughts of customers while ordering.
2. Use Bold fonts to attract customers’ attention
Figure 1: Bold font example. (Image Credit-Google)
Fonts are part of the menu design because your customers will choose dishes by reading. Using bold fonts when setting up the menu can guide the customer’s attention and make some special dishes more noticeable on the menu. So while designing, you can highlight the restaurant’s special dishes or popular dishes in bold font to attract customers’ attention to increase sales.
Use font bold to increase the readability of the menu and allow customers to be capable of catching the focus of the menu.
3. Menu images must look appetizing
Food pictures must look bright and delicious to use on menus. You can hire professional photographers to help take food pictures. If you want to use pictures on the menu, choose one or two distinctive dishes, without having to show all dishes pictures. Be careful if you choose to design a menu with images from other galleries(like using google search). If the pictures of the food displayed on the menu are inconsistent with the dishes you actually serve, you will need to add text explanations to the dishes.
You can also put some cultural pictures or illustrations of your own restaurants if you don’t want to just show some food. These rich visual photographs on the menu may be a good choice to show your business to your customers.
4. Highlight the cost-effective prices
Figure 2: Example of Highlight the cost-effective prices.(Image Credit-Google)
One of the secrets of designing a menu is designing for a cost-effective price on your menu. Many restaurant owners don’t want customers to review the menu and order the cheapest dishes. Here are four ways to avoid this:
Do not use vertical or horizontal alignment on the price of dishes.
Using non-traditional pricing methods, consider appearing only one number after the decimal point (use 10.5 instead of 10.50)
Choose subtle colors and typesetting for the price part of the dishes. For example, if the menu font is black, consider using gray as the font color of the dish price, which can weaken the visual impact.
Do not arrange dishes from high to low or from low to high prices, try to disrupt the price order.
5. Save space with special elements
A merchant’s menu can contain some form of information, such as some vegan signs, some gluten-free signs, or some signs of a spicy or sweet taste. Create menu special elements that not only save menu space but also form a visual reminder to customers.
6. Interesting copywriting
Interesting copywriting can enable customers to better understand the dishes they order, save time for the waiter, and even add more fun in the process of ordering them. The key is to write vivid and interesting copy for each dish, but also be brief and to the point.
The style of all copywriting should be in line with the restaurant’s positioning (Catering positioning). If it is a relaxed small restaurant, the words can be more lively, but if it is a more formal restaurant, it should use a more formal writing style.
7. A good color scheme
Figure 3: Example of a good color scheme.(Image Credit-Google)
When designing the menu, the color of the menu should be reasonable and match beautifully. It sounds very simple, but it is not easy to do. You need to choose the colors that line with the overall brand and style of the business.
Not only that, businesses also need to consider the meaning of color. For example, red is thought to stimulate appetite, green is usually associated with health, and blue is thought to suppress appetite. As a general rule, a bold and bright color is the first choice, but the color choice still depends on the type of your restaurant.
8. Different menu designs in the store
Businesses need to provide multiple menus, including paper menus on the table, advertising boards in front of the door, and APP menus used to scan the code to order food, and many businesses will offer digital menus on their websites.
The menu design of different platforms needs you to be careful about choosing food pictures on the menu(on the website and some apps) because when people visit a merchant’s restaurant through a website or app, the more attractive the pictures are, the more interesting they will be.
Summary
To run a restaurant, a menu with rich design content and distinctive features is something that diners cannot forget. On the contrary, a menu with monotonous content and no highlights is often prone to the loss of customer flow. Therefore, if you want to make your business more popular, take action immediately, and use the above eight methods to adjust the menu, which may be able to bring a satisfactory answer for how to make the business boom.