I was chatting with a friend tonight online, and she was talking about how she had Chipotle [Mexican grille] for dinner. I have never eaten there, and I have heard from many that I’m very deprived, so I’m sure I’ll get my Chipotle fix in due time. This post, however, is not about the food at Chipotle, or even the restaurant itself — it’s about their really un-sexy web site, and why it may drive users away.

Obviously it’s just a web site… for a restaurant. How much traffic does a web site like this really get per day? I honestly have no clue. But today, I was a user wanting to check out the menu of this legendary food experience.

So I google the restaurant seeing as how I still can’t spell “Chipotle” correctly — I swear I’m good at spelling, but there are certain words that I will probably never spell correctly the first time. Anyways, I finally make it to the home page:

MY THOUGHT PROCESS:

“Where is the navigation?”

“I think it’s great that I can order online, but what if I just wanted to see the menu? I’m planning on actually going to the restaurant. Can’t I just see the menu?”

“Why is there a flaming vehicle with horns staring at me?”

Now, because I’ve been an active member of the online community for quite some time, I have learned the many conventions of a web site. And by conventions I mean those little (or big) details that are quite common on most every web site there is today (at least the most popular and up to date ones… you know… the ones that people actually use). The convention I’m talking about with this particular web site is the fact that I should be able to get to the home page of the site at any moment by clicking the logo of the product, or restaurant in this case. Yes, I already knew I was on the home page, but I was curious to see what would happen if I clicked it again — maybe some type of navigation would magically appear on my screen! But WAIT! I mouse-over the logo and BAM! Navigation.

MY THOUGHT PROCESS:

“Aha! Now why couldn’t the navigation just be visible in the first place? How are people that don’t know that the logo might be more than just a logo (it’s navigation TOO!) going to know about all these wonderful things Chipotle.com has to offer?”

“Why did the flaming car all of a sudden lose the propellers in the back and grow purple wings? (Okay, I know this web site is all in Flash pretty much, but the car is seriously like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and it won’t stop changing. I have tried staring at it, but these flotation devices appearing on the car aren’t helping me understand what’s going on.”

I find that navigation is one of the most important parts of a web site. The navigation is a user’s map to direct them to their desired destination. I’m very directionally challenged when it comes to driving (ask anyone I know). I put a lot of trust in my GPS, Julie, to get me around town (everyone has a name for their GPS, don’t judge me). Going to Chipotle’s web site was kind of like losing my GPS for a second and then realizing I put it in a spot that didn’t make any sense. Granted, it only took me a second to find the navigation (after having to THINK about it), but let’s be realistic. Not everyone is going to realize it’s there or think about trying to find it, and why should they? When users get frustrated with a web site, they leave. Simple Solution: Get rid of the fancy crap, and put the navigation in plain sight for a user to see. I’m not against all things fancy, but I am against having to look for my navigation, when it’s supposed to guide me in the first place.

If I were to never find the menu of Chipotle, I may not have ever been interested in going — but the food looks awesome. Lunch tomorrow anyone? :)