Côte Restaurant Website Design

Bringing the ‘Joie de Vivre’

Expertise

Strategic Consultation
Primary User Research and Analysis
User / Customer Insight
UI and UX Design
User Testing
Art Direction

+10%

Increased Booking Conversion Rates

Responsive Pages Design

1-to-1 User Interviews & 2 Focus Groups

Watch the Côte Brasserie Website design story

The challenge

Create a personality-led website to dramatically improve brand storytelling and on-line bookings.

The executive team at Cote wanted to take an insight-led approach to their website. This approach allowed us to fully understand their customer needs and create a digital experience that was both functionally excellent and emotionally engaging. that’s what we call a win-win.

The big idea

Digitally communicating the emotive essence of the Cote dining experience from morning to night.

Mobile First and Mission Focused

Analysis showed 68% of users are mobile, so we needed a true mobile first solution. Côte website design’s main missions of booking a table and checking the menus needed to be as seamless as possible. On mobile we added ‘quick links’ for the most popular missions, which flex depending on the page you are visiting. On desktop, a booking bar is present on the bottom of every page.

Easy to Check Menus

Our research found that checking the menu was the main reason guests were visiting the website so it became top priority to bring ease and usability to this section. The solution for Côte website design addressed multiple menus and price tiering complexity.

Working with I-AM has been a pleasure. They were not afraid to challenge the accepted norms within our business. Using data and research to understand what our customer really wanted the result is a fabulous looking website that services both the functional and emotional needs of our guests. All this whist delivering a 10% increase in booking conversion rates.

Jimmy Muldoon, Director of Insights & Digital at Côte

Experience Storytelling

The design concept was based around ‘The luxury of time and moments’ communicating the joy of social interaction through the Côte experience. The layout and design was inspired by overlapping scrapbook images, with offset typography to evoke the sense of memories. This was complimented with an experience-led video featured on the homepage landing.

Food Quality and Ingredient Provenance

Their passion for high food standards was communicated on the website by introducing a dedicated ‘Food Ethos’ page which included a variety of supplier stories and a dedicated video. Across the rest of the website we introduced food ethos storytelling prompts to land this message no matter what the mission and page the user was exploring.

Our process

Behind the scenes

User Interviews

Following a detailed research and system analysis stage we identified 5 proto personas based on the ‘foodie connoisseur’ and ‘experience embracer’ guest profiles. 24 participants were then interviewed from all around England, representing existing and future customers in order to understand and uncover-- guests wants and needs.

Ideation Workshops

Following the definition of our digital experience objectives such as ‘Make it easier for people to check the menus’ and ‘Convince people that the food is of the upmost quality’, we used a lotus blossom ideation method to generate ideas for tech and content on the website. These ideas were collaboratively reviewed and prioritised alongside the cote team to determine a key feature set.

User Flows & Wireframes

User flows were designed for each persona, and for each dining out occasion, for both the planning stage and the experience stage. Through this in-depth perspective, we ensured that the functional and emotional needs of our target audience were met by the design.

User Testing & Focus Groups

A prototype of the website was tested for both usability and appeal using a combination of one-to-one user testing sessions and focus groups. This enabled the designs and content to be refined prior to moving into the development and content creation stages.

Experience-led Content Creation

We were responsible for bringing to life the home page experience-led video, in collaboration with videographer Toby Mitchell. Our role involved sourcing the production team, model casting, day coordination, and art direction scene planning. It took place on a one-day shoot where scenes for breakfast, lunch and dinner were captured.