Last week I compiled a checklist for building bar websites. That was a pretty opinion heavy piece, but I tried to pull out insights from stats I collected as well. Instead of creating a massive post with all that info I decided to split it up.
This post is a little quantitative analysis of the info I tracked for each of the 30 websites in that article and more interestingly, a snapshot of the current state of web design for bars.
By the numbers…not quite like this.
Scoping site content, an aid
For the web design checklist I was interested in how big a website should be (in pages or sections) and how much creative content was required for it. I thought both of these pieces of information would help freelancers better scope projects by avoiding scope creep (why is my site 15 pages when the average is x pages?) and preparing for and planning creative content to be created by the client which is inevitably needed before sign off can occur.
My four key numbers were:
Pages (or sections for one page websites)
Photos
Paragraphs of creative content
Videos
The state of site design
Early on I come across some glaring usability no-no’s. I decided it would be interesting to look at the state of website maintenance and prevalence of responsive design.
I began to track whether websites also had:
Broken/out of date content
Responsive design elements
Site Content
(I’ve used ‘box and whisker’ graphs below. Here’s how to read one.)
Pages
The median number of pages for a bar website was 7. This was fairly evenly distributed between sites that were slightly larger and slightly smaller.
My advice on the checklist was to err on the side of smaller and simpler than 7.
Min
1
Lower Quartile
5
Median
7
Upper Quartile
8
Max
11
Photos
The distribution of the number of photos I saw on bar websites was skewed really low.
50% of websites had less than 8 photos and 75% of websites had less than 16 photos.
When a site had a gallery I did count those photos which resulted in the long tail on the upper side of the count.
As I discussed on the checklist blog, I don’t like galleries because they represent a large amount of work to keep looking good.
My advice is that a handful of professionally taken photos will go a LONG way to covering the required visual material for the website.
Min
0
Lower Quartile
5
Median
8.5
Upper Quartile
15.25
Max
75
Paragraphs of Creative Copy
Paragraphs of creative copy was really fascinating to look at.
I distinguished between two different types of text on the websites, ‘informative’ and ‘creative’.
‘Informative’ was boring, easy to write stuff like reservation policies, driving directions, “Like us on social media” sort of things. These are best described in plain, uninteresting language.
I considered ‘creative copy’ text on the site that would require exactly that, creativity. Emotive language describing the menu or the atmosphere were easy examples to identify.
My interest in this part of the website creation process was to help freelancers set expectations for clients about what they would need to provide themselves. Unless you are an experienced copywriter, I don’t recommend that you take the creative content part of the Bar site build off your client. Let them handle that. But now you can have an idea of how much you need.
There was a mixture of strange websites that had NO creative copy (they relied entirely on images - risky strategy) and some more verbose sites with lots of writing.
Overall the ‘less is more’ approach worked well on the creative copy. Sites were able to make a good impression with 3-4 well chosen paragraphs.
Min
0
Lower Quartile
1
Median
3.5
Upper Quartile
7.75
Max
17
Videos
Videos. Hilariously awkward.
This funny looking chart actually shows a Min, Lower Quartile, Median and Upper Quartile of 0. Videos weren’t popular.
And rightly so. To make a good impression they need high production value. And that costs moolah.
Min
0
Lower Quartile
0
Median
0
Upper Quartile
0
Max
4
The state of site design
Site relevance
Trust building online is a very delicate art.
A sixth sense for safety and danger is something that my generation has grown up having to develop. (Just which of these bright green buttons with an arrow is the ACTUAL download button for my patch/drivers/stream?)
Site recency and relevance are two huge factors that affect whether a site sets off warning bells in my head.
If a website looks like someone owns it, loves it and cares enough to ensure things are working and recent it goes a LONG way to my sense of security.
I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that a third of the Bar websites I visited had broken or outdated content that set off the alarm bells in my head.
From simple broken image or offsite links to visible malware advertising injections, some of these bars needed a bit more care and web savvy.
A website is not a set and forget affair.
Has up to date content
66.7%
Has broken outdated content
33.3%
Responsive Design
Websites are not only viewed on desktop computers anymore. Switched on web designers know this and are building responsive websites to cater to viewing on multiple devices. A site that can’t be viewed easily by the customer on their preferred device is almost as bad as no website.
Three quarters of the websites I viewed had no responsiveness whatsoever and this represents a big problem, but big opportunity for web designers.
Responsive Design
26.7%
Unresponsive Design
73.3%
Conclusion
The average Bar website from my sample has 7 pages, 9 photos, 4 paragraphs of creative copy and no videos. There is also a 1 in 3 chance that it’s out of date or has some broken code and it almost certainly isn’t responsive. Take design inspiration from the first set of stats and use the second set as a reminder not to be complacent.
There is a great opportunity out there to help Bar owners create sites that are simpler, cleaner and easier to maintain. Updating sites to make sure they are viewable on a range of consumer devices is also important. Remember, company info in customers hands is what it’s all about in the end.