Design

After Adobe Creative Suite: Exploring Alternatives for Designers and Artists

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I’m starting a new series where I will be trying alternatives to Adobe Creative Suite and sharing my findings with you all. Adobe Creative Suite has become an onerous subscription scam that is too expensive for many developers and creators, especially in the Global South. Alternative apps and software have matured to the point where you can accomplish most tasks you need with these high quality alternatives.

I’ve been using Adobe products since the mid 1990s, probably since 1994 when Adobe bought Aldus Pagemaker. That’s a quarter century investment in the platform, so quitting it is not a light decision. I’ve probably been a Adobe Creative Suite monthly subscriber for at least 10 years, so I’ve probably spent over $6000 on Adobe software. Contrast this to the late 1990s, when you could buy a shrink-wrapped box of the software, at retail price, for $500-600 a program. I’ve mostly ever used Photoshop and InDesign/Pagemaker, so there was a time when I could have paid $1200 for those two titles and not had to pay anything else to Adobe.

Of course, tens of thousands of users bought those licenses in the 90s and 2000s, only to see them turned off when Adobe moved to its predatory subscription model. Adobe exploits the the switching costs dilemma that social media monopolies base their business models on. Artists, designers, and agencies have lots of money, resources and institutional memory tied up with assets, knowledge, and experience that rely on the Adobe platform.

Fortunately, it appears that alternatives have evolved and competitors have everything you need. I’ve assessed what I really do with Adobe products and most of those tasks can be done by the basic features of any of these programs. Re-sizing images and graphics for websites and social media, making ads, editing photos, creating basic illustrations, making menus and business cards, and more recently, editing audio and video. I’m not a power use, but with this series, I hope to find that Adobe alternatives offer a full range of features for all types of users.

I will be looking at the following apps, software, and services.

Alternatives to Photoshop

Alternatives to Audition

Alternatives to Illustrator

Alternatives to Figma

This was added when Figma was in the process of being bought by Adobe. This merger has since been suspended.

Alternative to Premier Pro

Alternatives to InDesign

Animation

Drawing and Art Apps / Programs

By @XdanielArt

13 Essentials for Successful Restaurant Websites

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One of the critical things today for restaurant success is a quality website that presents the restaurant’s brand and is easy to use by customers. An effective restaurant website puts the best foot forward for the business, is helpful to customers and turns customers into repeat customers and evangelists for your business. Too many restaurants rely on having just a Facebook page or a website that is too wrapped up in its own design to be useful for your customers.

What are the essential design components of an effective restaurant website. In rough order of importance, starting with the most important:

  1. Display Hours, Address and Phone Number Prominently Featured – Unlike many websites out there, the goal of a restaurant website is not to keep the visitor lingering and spending time on the website. You want to turn every visitor into a customer, who makes a decision to visit your restaurant in person or place an order. Most of your customers are seeking quick information about your restaurant’s hours, address, phone number, menu options and prices. We put this critical decision info at the top of the website (except for menu information). A customer who is visiting your website is either a returning customer or somebody who has already decided to patronize your restaurant. Some restaurant web designer hide contact information, hours and phone number at the bottom of a home page. Often in the footer, or even on a secondary page. Don’t put obstacles in the way of customers who want to spend money at your restaurant.
  2. Mobile Friendly – It’s critical that your restaurant website look awesome on mobile devices. Over 50% of Internet users view websites on mobile devices. The numbers are probably much higher for people looking for restaurant information. A mobile friendly design should look and function like an app, not look like a miniature version of your site. Your customers should not need to pinch and expand to zoom in on your website.
  3. Menus – Customers visiting your website should not expect to be presented with a PDF of your physical menu as their first contact with the menus. Menus should be pages on your site or a section of text and pictures. Customers don’t like having to wait for a PDF file to open. Many tablets and mobile devices are poorly configured to display PDF files. Sure, it’s awesome that you’ve spent money on a nice menu design. You can always set up the menu PDF as an optional link at the bottom of your menu page or pages.
  4. Highlight special features of your menu – Do you have gluten free, vegetarian, vegan or other special options on your menu? Highlight these on your website menus. You can also create separate pages for these options on your website, where you explain in detail why these options are available.
  5. Phone Number should initiate phone call – The phone number listed prominently at the top of your website should start a phone call for any customer touching the number on their mobile device. Commonly, a customer looking up info on your restaurant is going to be somebody in their car, often with family or friends. “Call the number for the restaurant!” “Siri. Call Big City American Cafe.” Your website designer can set this up easily.
  6. Actual Website and not just social media page – There are so many restaurants out there that don’t have websites and only have a page on Facebook. Even worse are places that have nothing and are only represented online by a Google or Yelp listing. Branding your business effectively is Marketing 101. Your restaurant has to have its own website so you can market your brand on your terms. Your customers also want a website where they can expect answers to any of their questions. Facebook also doesn’t show all of your posts to all of your customers. An actual website is an important way of having more control over your interactions with customers.
  7. Pictures! A restaurant is a visual experience. There is the food. The decor. The staff. Special events. The neighborhood. All of these things lend themselves to making a restaurant website visually fresh and exciting. With the widespread availability of excellent cameras on smart phones, you and your staff should be constantly taking pictures for the website. Food photography can be trickier, but you’d be surprised at some of the excellent pictures you can get with a little practice, good lighting and an eye for presentation.
  8. Testimonials and Reviews – Share the words of your customer fans and local critics. Testimonials are a sign you are doing things right and give word-of-mouth more authenticity.
  9. Mailing List – A smart restaurant owner is always looking to turn customers into repeat customers and regulars. You should be looking to sign them up to a mailing list so you can mail them a regular newsletter, special offers, and news about special events. Your website is a perfect place to get customers to sign up for a mailing list. You should also have sign-ups in your restaurants, even with cards on tables. We recommend either Mailchimp or Constant Contact for mailing list cultivation and management.
  10. Reservation Services – Set up a third party reservation system like Bookatable to generate reservations, especially for large groups. Many of these services are free or affordable and integrate easily with your website.
  11. Show Off Your Personality – One of the drawbacks with a Facebook page is that your page looks like everything else, even with pictures. A website gives you a chance to show off your restaurant, food, staff, cooks and neighborhood. A restaurant website helps you brand your online presence and facilitates your digital marketing. Your website should also have a design that reflects the style of your cuisine and not be some boilerplate theme offered by some discount hosting.
  12. Specials and Offers – Your website should present your specials and offers. This give you more room to explain an offer. You can also create individual landing pages for offers where you can track how people are learning about your business.
  13. Analytics – This is a fancy way of saying keeping track of who visits your website. You are probably familiar with using customer feedback cards in the restaurant to collect information about your customers. Your website should be set up with Google Analytics so that you can gather information about customers AND people who were interested but haven’t decided to visit yet. Analytics can give you information about where people are visiting from, which might suggest a part of your city where traditional advertising should be targeted. You can find out which devices customers are using. Which pages they visit the most. How many people are clicking on your special offers pages.

Having a website is essential for restaurant success and we hope this helps you do it even better.

Photographer: Ali Yahya

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