What needs to be on every restaurant website?

• Location
• Hours
• Phone number

These three bits of information are so important that one could stop there and have an effective website. Want a beautiful site that evokes the atmosphere and experience of the establishment? Want to showcase your seasonal menus? Great! Just make sure these three items are easy to find, perhaps on every page–think header, not footer. Get stylistic with other elements on the site, but make sure the address looks like an address and the phone number like a phone number. Think about your mobile users here, if you must use Flash, make sure the location, hours and phone number display for non-Flash users as well.

John E. Karlin was instrumental in defining our telephone experience. At Bell Labs, he suggested a new, User Preference department, which later became Human Factors Engineering. Karlin’s obituary is a fascinating glimpse at his career.

Photo: Courtesy of Alcatel-Lucent USA

Here’s an interesting bit from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox on Teenage Usability:

Teens are not technowizards who surf the web with abandon. And they don’t like sites laden with glitzy, blinking graphics. Teens are often stereotyped as only wanting things that are bold and different. They’re also often viewed as being fearless about technology and constantly connected to some form of media. Although this might be partially true, it’s an oversimplification and letting this steer your design can lead to disastrous outcomes.

Some of the research findings may go against commonly held beliefs, but they should be taken into account when designing web sites for the teen and young adult demographics.