Grant Kennedy

What a Restaurant Website Taught Me About Design That Lasts

1 min read
Case Studies Personal

A modern reflection on an early restaurant website project—and what it taught me about UX, positioning, and building digital experiences that stand out.

What a Restaurant Website Taught Me About Design That Lasts

Some projects stick with you—not because of their complexity, but because of what they reveal about how humans make decisions.
On The eDge Tapas was one of those projects.

The client was a chef opening a new restaurant in a small but competitive downtown area. She needed to stand out fast, build credibility quickly, and attract diners who were open to bold, creative flavors.

This wasn’t just a “restaurant website.”
It became an experiment in emotional design, positioning, and understanding what draws people to try something new.

And even now, in 2025, I still use the lessons from this project.

The Reflection

Working with a chef—someone deeply creative, expressive, and intentional—forced me to rethink what “good design” means.

I realized:

  • People choose restaurants emotionally, not logically
  • A good website should translate personality, not just information
  • Minimalism only works when it’s anchored by strong identity
  • Local SEO is one of the most unfair advantages a new restaurant can get

This project was one of the first times I saw a direct correlation between good branding → strong UX → financial outcomes.

Condensed Case Study

The Challenge

  • New restaurant, zero brand awareness
  • Highly competitive local market
  • Need to communicate personality and creativity immediately
  • Needed online reservations to streamline early operations

The Solution

  • Built a clean, modern WordPress site
  • Focused heavily on imagery, textures, and color restraint
  • Used one accent color (green) for freshness and consistency
  • Wrote copy for a specific persona: the bold individualist
  • Implemented local SEO so she would appear early and often
  • Integrated online reservations to reduce operational load

The Results

  • Website started receiving strong organic traffic within the first month
  • Reservation book filled quickly
  • First-month ROI exceeded 100% just from online bookings
  • Client satisfaction was extremely high—one of the best signals of product-market fit for a service-based project

What This Project Still Teaches Me Today

Even though I now work with much larger organizations, the core principles haven’t changed:

  • Constraints force clarity.
  • Design should express, not decorate.
  • Good UX is emotional, not just functional.
  • Local SEO is still one of the most powerful levers for small businesses.

This project expanded my definition of “craft.”
It made me think more deeply about the purpose of design—and how the right design, delivered at the right moment in a business’s life, can create a measurable outcome.

It’s still one of my favorite early projects for that reason.