TheBrunchNYC
“Let’s Do Brunch!”
www.thebrunchnyc.com
Your online resource to discover the best brunch spots in New York City and share your stories.
TheBrunchNYC is a community for foodies and brunch enthusiasts who want to explore the best places to eat brunch in New York City and share their favorite brunch experiences. It’s like a Yelp, but specifically built for brunch, where people can access information about popular high-end venues as well as affordable places. You can compare and choose the best spots that fit your lifestyle and needs.
The long-term goal of the website is to continuously add more content about existing as well as new and upcoming brunch spots throughout New York City, and to build an online community for site visitors. It will be a place where visitors can discover new places, submit their brunch stories, and share their photos of their brunch experiences.
Personas & Scenarios
Foodies, Tourists, and NYC Locals
People like Amy are sociable, knowledgable, and always on the verge of discovering new places and things to do throughout New York City. Amy is always on-the-go and relies on her phone to deliver the latest news and stay on top of current trends. Amy is always looking for the next brunch spots to hang out and enjoy a good meal with her friends, especially on the weekends. She loves photography, and she enjoys taking photos of her experiences and sharing them with friends. Amy tends to choose restaurants based on their good reviews and how amazing the food photos look across social media. She tends to stumble upon new restaurants while thumbing through photos on Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms.
Food Critics & Bloggers
A food blogger like Laura can submit her own original articles and food photography to share with TheBrunchNYC community, along with her author biography and links to her personal blog and her social media pages. Laura can publish her stories and reviews of her unique brunch and dining experiences, which can help her increase publicity and brand exposure for her own online presence, as well as promote traffic and gain more readership and followers on her food blog.
Restaurant Business Owners
If the site becomes more popular, the website can later facilitate a forum for digital marketing, so that a small business owner like Janet, who just opened up her own restaurant, can connect with potential customers and offer her restaurant’s best deals and promotions — like coupons, discounts, vouchers, specials, etc. — for returning patrons. The stories and reviews that people share about her restaurant can also provide Janet with some feedback on how well her products and services are being delivered to customers. This can also provide her with some insight into how she can continue improving her business so that she can keep this in mind during her planning processes with her staff.
Site Map & Navigation
Below is the proposed site map, which uses a simple hierarchal structure. The homepage will have the navigation menu in a container on the left side of the web page.
The navigation menu will then be placed across the top of the page, under the header, when a visitor clicks on a navigation item and lands on a sub-page. This will allow for more room for text and images to appear on the sub-pages so that the focus remains on the content. Sub-categories can be added under the appropriate main navigation categories, as the site expands and more content is added later in the future.
In terms of navigation for a website dedicated to brunch, it would make the most sense to separate the topics into categories. Categories in the site navigation/structure will include:
- “Why do brunch?” (e.g. cultural and social background behind brunching)
- “Your brunch style?” (e.g. types of brunches and cuisines)
- “NYC Brunch Spots” (e.g. first starting out with the Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and Lower East Side areas, then will branch out over time)
- “Top Fives & Faves” (e.g. lists of top five recommendations for specific brunch foods, most affordable restaurants, best places for coffee, etc.)
- “Stories” (e.g. a page with ways for site visitors to submit lists of their favorite brunch cafes and restaurants and their favorite brunch items, as well as photos of their experiences, via email or social media outlets like Twitter or Instagram)
Wireframe
Prototypes
Homepage
Sub-Page (example)
Julienne, nice website. Very visually striking, nice use of colors, and the text reads well. You definitely fulfilled the requirements here as this site is specifically devoted to brunching. Time Out and refinery29 both kind of do this those are magazines which captures the wider spectrum of NYC eating. As we discussed in class using colorful images works well with black and white text, that’s something I’ll consider when I proceed on my project. Overall I’m impressed, best of luck with this site.
Hi Julianne,
I really enjoyed your concept for the brunch website. Brunching has truly becoming a staple weekend activity and I can definitely see this site taking off. I think the layout you have now is very aesthetically appealing–it has a crisp feel to it that is not pretentious and easy to navigate. As mentioned in class, I think the “Why Brunch?” aspect isn’t really necessary but perhaps providing bruncher’s stories or having an accompanying blog where food bloggers feature a particular restaurant or brunch item (ex. Best eggs benedict in the city) would be cool little addition to differentiate it from other food-focused sites.
Hi Julianne,
I really like your website, I think it’s a great concept for people that love to brunch and even people that don’t necessarily do it as much (as myself). I think you can do so much with the “Your Brunch Style,” aside from the food, you can even advise on brunches atmospheres such as low key brunches versus party brunches. I had a friend recently post on Instagram the most hype brunch I’ve ever seen, everyone was reciting Biggie lyrics. Also, Lavo has people dancing on tables at their brunches. You can do a lot with this concept, you’re definitely off to a great start.
Julianne, I really like the idea and layout of your website. I absolutely love the blog post you designated within the Stories section – “What’s cooking on Carmine Street?” and the social media icons you placed underneath each subpage; it really brings about a compact and easygoing user experience. I am not sure if the ‘Why do Brunch’ section will work for a user who already is seeking out brunch spots within NYC. Maybe you can do a historical section on brunch and its cultural and social significance instead.
The name ‘The BrunchNYC’ sort of reminds me Facebook’s initial name which was ‘The Facebook.’ Who knows, maybe BrunchNYC will one day become as big as Facebook? 🙂
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