Trifecta Bar + Lounge: Process Book

rifecta t bar lounge +

COMPETITOR RESEARCH

VERTIGO VERTIGO SKY SKY LOUNGE LOUNGE { vertigoskylounge.com }

I am designing a website for Trifecta Bar + Lounge, a hip, quasi-dive bar located in Chicago, IL. But in order to attract an audience to the site, I need to know what I am up against. So I analized and compared 4 other lounge/bar websites in Chicago.

ROOF ROOF ON ON THEWIT THEWIT

THE THE VIOLET VIOLET HOUR HOUR

THE THE AVIARY AVIARY

ROOF at theWit claims to be a great place to be all year round and is “above it all”.

Their website features options of viewing imagery and information about being at the ROOF night and day of any season by toggling between different tabs. Their navigation is vertically displayed on the left side which features another new large image and content based on the page you’re on. The design of the website as a whole is a fixed square in the center of the page that expands vertically depending on the amount of content per page. It’s modern and the photography is its best feature. I do not like how they display their social media, email list, and VIP buttons at the top of the website. They are practically floating and don’t seem cohesive with the whole site.

The social media buttons should have been designed to fit in more.

The only thing working well on The Violet Hour’s website is the large prominent imagery showing pictures of their drinks and atmosphere. As a first impression, these large images seem very pleasant and inviting. It makes them seem like they have quality food and drink and a beautiful bar, but they lack any human quality in their images which makes it seem like an empty, unpopular bar. They also use a plain serif font, making them seem less modern. And their top navigation in italic caps is not a good look. I appreciate the simplicity of the design as a whole, but it is not a site I would’ve been proud to publish. It also seems like it isn’t edited normally, because on the homepage it says “Please note, The Violet Hour will be closed on Tuesday, Sept 3rd. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Normal hours resume on the 4th.”

The Aviary made a noticeably simple website that features a quick-changing jQuery image slideshow. Their logo is featured centered at the top with their navigation horizontally below the image slideshow. Each link in their navigation pops up overlaid on the image slideshow with a dark opaque background so the text can be read. I would say there is a heavy lack in content on the website, but maybe that was their goal. I think the image slideshow being active while you read the pages is very jarring, and I think it transitions to fast in the first place. Their font choice for the content isn’t great either… Verdana is overused. Their social media icons are horrible too, they needed to customize them to fit their web design. I do appreciate their simplicity, but I think they could improve their website.

{ roofonthewit.com }

{ theviolethour.com }

{ theaviary.com }

FIRST IMPRESSIONS The website of Vertigo Sky Lounge in Chicago leaves me with a fair first impression. The design has a nice long banner image of some well-dressed people hanging out at the lounge during the day after work and the blue and pink colors lends itself to a nice airy daytime feel. Not entirely noticeable at first, there is a switch that can be clicked and turn the website into “Vertigo by Night” which changes the color scheme to mainly black and blue. The top navigation has some problems with its functionality and design. Only 3 out of the 7 links stay on their website, and the rest are external links. There’s also a secondary navigation above the main navigation seems unorganized. There were a few bugs in the site, with the banner and 7 thumbnails that remained visable when they should’ve been hidden.

OVERALL OVERALL COMPARISON COMPARISON After finding four lounge & bars in Chicago as competition for the company I am making a website for, I am motivated to take what I found to be most effective and least effective and make my website even better than the competition. What I found most effective from all four of the websites were their use of beautiful imagery in order to reflect what their atmosphere, food, drink, and social scene looks like (or how they want others to think it looks like). They each found a way to provide basic information about their locations and market their business as visually as they could while still staying simple in the design. Some of the least effective parts of the competitions’ websites were some of the cliché fonts they used, their either lack of content or too much content, unorganized navigation, a jarring image slideshow, poor use of social media icons, their lack of troubleshooting bugs and content maintenance.

From this comparison, I can start to piece together what a user expects from a lounge & bar website from Chicago. I can also start to brainstorm what I want to do in my design to make it stand out from the competition.

PERSONA: Alli Peterson

“I love connecting with my girlfriends on Facebook; we always talk about where to go for the night after work or on the weekends.�

Alli moved to Chicago after she graduated from the University of Michigan and she has been in the city for five years. She works busy hours at her job and always looks to relax or have some fun on her time off.

She has a boyfriend whom she met in the city and they have been together for three years. They like to go out at least once a week to share a few drinks together at a bar or with their close group of friends. Alli also enjoys spending quality time with just her girlfriends and having a few cocktails.

She likes to dress up and go out but not to go watch sports. She has a charming personality and knows how to entertain and enjoy the company around her. Her greatest anxieties are losing her friends and not living life to the fullest.

OVERALL IMPORTANCE

Age: 24-32 Sales Representative for Liberty Mutual Insurance

Location: Chicago, IL $60,000 per year

Succeeding in Career Socializing Drinking Staying at Home Dancing Sports Fashion Music Traveling Technology

LOW

KEY ATTRIBUTES HIGH

Friendliness Confidence Boring Adventurous Energetic Introverted Antisocial Humorous Intelligent Comfortable

LOW

HIGH

CONTENT OUTLINE HOME Slogan Background Image Bottom Navigation

BAR

LOUNGE

MENU

EVENTS

Bar Info Drinks Bartenders Menu Link

Lounge Info Reservations Form

Menu Info Photos Menu Link Favorite Meals

Events Info Special Events

ABOUT Description of Trifecta Plan Your Visit Info

CONTACT Contact Details Contact Form

WEB DESIGN CONCEPT “Trifecta Bar + Lounge is the perfect place to enjoy watching a skilled bartender practice their craft with the highest quality ingredients. It’s also great for an after work drink or quiet date. Located in Chicago in an area heavily dominated by sports bars, it serves as a needed hip, quasi-dive bar with class, neighboring water hole. The constant experimentation and ever-changing drink menu keeps guests coming back. They also recently added a superb and selective bar food menu to pair with their drinks.”

> Large image that captures the essence of a pleasing atmosphere. > All of the images on the website to make viewers want to check out this new bar and lounge. > Dark colors to reflect the low-lit lounge aspect of Trifecta with a few bright colors to represent the colorful lights in a typical modern bar/lounge scene. > Sleek, modern look that follows web-trends like flat graphics, simple icons, large images, parallax backgrounds, and social media incorporation. > If this was a real-world business, Trifecta would be very active with their social media. > The navigation will first be horizontally on the bottom of the homepage then will slide to the top of the page upon going to a secondary page. > The structure will be simplistic, but not as simple as The Aviary or The Voilet Hour websites from my competitor research. > The webfont will be Oxygen from Google Fonts since it is a simple and clean sans serif that will complement the modern look I am going for. > I plan on writing the content myself which includes making up menu and drink items. The menu will be available in PDF format.

MOODBOARD Social Lively Hip Chic Entertaining Relaxing Comfortable Fun Atmosphere

Cool Quality Classy New-age Experimenting Ever-changing Delicious Food Tasty Drinks Mature

Oxygen

{ light & bold }

Fragments of imagery, descriptive words, type, colors and designs that inspire the Trifecta Bar + Lounge web design. (Oxygen is a Google Font with regular, light and bold variations.)

SITEMAP HOME

BAR

LOUNGE

MENU

EVENTS

ABOUT

CONTACT

WIREFRAME SKETCHES

WIREFRAMES HOMEPAGE

SECONDARY PAGE nav item 1

nav item 2

nav item 3

logo

nav item 4

nav item 5

nav item 6

page title

catchy tagline goes here location arrow down

content div

paragraph nav item 1

nav item 2

nav item 3

logo

nav item 4

nav item 5

nav item 6

LOGO PROCESS

TRIFECTA

trifect bar lounge trifect bar lounge

TRIFECTA TRIFECT trifecta C T I T A R BAR + LOUNGE

t rifecta bar lounge

+

TRIFECTA

BAR +

TRIFECTA

BAR + LOUNGE

BAR + LOUNGE

LOUNGE TRIFECTA BAR LOUNGE +

BAR + LOUNGE

BAR + LOUNGE

bar

+

lounge

+

+

IDENTITY SYSTEM

rifecta t bar lounge +

Oxygen { light regular bold }

canter { light outline bold bold 3d bold shadows bold stripes }

DESIGN COMP VARIATIONS live for today, plan for tomorrow,

live for today, plan for tomorrow,

in downtown chicago

in downtown chicago

party tonight. with us.

bar

lounge

menu

trifecta bar lounge

events

trifecta bar lounge

events

about

lounge

menu

contact

about

contact

our bartenders

SEE OUR FULL SELECTION OF UNIQUE DRINKS

lounge

menu

trifecta bar lounge

events

about

contact

bar

lounge

menu

bar

lounge

menu

trifecta

events

about

contact

bar

lounge

menu

bar + lounge

bar have a drink

bar

in downtown chicago

+

+

Trifecta Bar + Lounge is the perfect place to enjoy watching a skilled bartender practice their craft with the highest quality ingredients. It’s also great for an after work drink or quiet date. Located in Chicago in an area heavily dominated by sports bars, it serves as a needed hip, quasi-dive bar with class, neighboring water hole. The constant experimentation and ever-changing drink menu keeps guests coming back. They also recently added a superb and selective bar food menu to pair

party tonight. with us.

party tonight. with us.

+

bar

live for today, plan for tomorrow,

bar our bartenders

All of our bartenders are TIPS certified. Additionally, our bartenders are well-versed in current cocktail practices and strongly believe in the art of fresh mixology.

All of our bartenders are TIPS certified. Additionally, our bartenders are well-versed in current cocktail practices and strongly believe in the art of fresh mixology.

Matt is a skilled bartender born and raised in Chicago.

His love of experimenting with the drink menu has made Trifecta a place everyone wants to come back to.

Matt is a skilled bartender born and raised in Chicago.

His love of experimenting with the drink menu has made Trifecta a place everyone wants to come back to.

Eric is a Southern boy who loves his cat, photography, Levis, Breaking Bad and wet t-shirt contests. Eric's dislikes include anchovy stuffed olives and spiders.

Eric is a Southern boy who loves his cat, photography, Levis, Breaking Bad and wet t-shirt contests. Eric's dislikes include anchovy stuffed olives and spiders.

Krystal is most known for her charming personality and "just having a way" with our customers. She is a skilled artist when it comes to creating tasty drinks.

Trifecta Bar + Lounge is the perfect place to enjoy watching a skilled bartender practice their craft with the highest quality ingredients. It’s also great for an after work drink or quiet date.

Located in Chicago in an area heavily dominated by sports bars, it serves as a needed hip, quasi-dive bar with class, neighboring water hole. The constant experimentation and ever-changing drink menu keeps guests coming back. They also recently added a superb and selective bar food menu to pair withSEE theirOUR drinks.

FULL SELECTION OF UNIQUE DRINKS (PDF)

Krystal is most known for her charming personality and "just having a way" with our customers. She is a skilled artist when it comes to creating tasty drinks.

trifecta

events

about

contact

trifecta

events

about

contact

bar + lounge

bar + lounge

bar

our bartenders All of our bartenders are TIPS certified. Additionally, our bartenders are well-versed in current cocktail practices and strongly believe in the art of fresh mixology.

Matt is a skilled bartender born and raised in Chicago. His love of experimenting with the drink menu has made Trifecta a place everyone wants to come back to.

Eric is a Southern boy who loves his cat, photography, Levis, Breaking Bad and wet t-shirt contests. Eric's dislikes include anchovy stuffed olives and spiders.

Trifecta Bar + Lounge is the perfect place to enjoy watching a skilled bartender practice their craft with the highest quality ingredients. It’s also great for an after work drink or quiet date.

Located in Chicago in an area heavily dominated by sports bars, it serves as a needed hip, quasi-dive bar with class, neighboring water hole. The constant experimentation and ever-changing drink menu keeps guests coming back. They also recently added a superb and selective bar food menu to pair with their drinks.

our drinks

Krystal is most known for her charming personality and "just having a way" with our customers. She is a skilled artist when it comes to creating tasty drinks.

FULL DRINK MENU

HALANI COCKTAIL Bourbon, lemon, orange, pineapple, and grenadine

DUVEL SINGLE, BELGIUM Mildly hoppy with herbal aromas.

CELEBRATION Pyrat XO rum, grape fruit, Tanqueray 10 & Groseille syrup

SASSARI Gin, Campari, vermouth, Coco Lopez and lime

FINAL DESIGN COMP bar

lounge

trifecta bar lounge

menu

+

bar

live for today, plan for tomorrow,

party tonight. with us.

Matt is a skilled bartender born and raised in Chicago. His love of experimenting with the drink menu has made Trifecta a place everyone wants to come back to.

Eric is a Southern boy who loves his cat, photography, Levis, Breaking Bad and wet t-shirt contests. Eric's dislikes include anchovy stuffed olives and spiders.

our drinks menu

t rifecta bar lounge +

events

about

contact

contact

All of our bartenders are TIPS certified. Additionally, our bartenders are well-versed in current cocktail practices and strongly believe in the art of fresh mixology.

Trifecta Bar + Lounge is the perfect place to enjoy watching a skilled bartender practice their craft with the highest quality ingredients. It’s also great for an after work drink or quiet date.

Located in Chicago in an area heavily dominated by sports bars, it serves as a needed hip, quasi-dive bar with class, neighboring water hole. The constant experimentation and ever-changing drink menu keeps guests coming back. They also recently added a superb and selective bar food menu to pair with their drinks.

lounge

about

our bartenders

in downtown chicago

bar

events

FULL DRINK MENU

HALANI COCKTAIL Bourbon, lemon, orange, pineapple, and grenadine

Krystal is most known for her charming personality and "just having a way" with our customers. She is a skilled artist when it comes to creating tasty drinks.

> DUVEL SINGLE, BELGIUM Mildly hoppy with herbal aromas.

CELEBRATION Pyrat XO rum, grape fruit, Tanqueray 10 & Groseille syrup

SASSARI Gin, Campari, vermouth, Coco Lopez and lime

http://myweb.students.wwu.edu/~smiths73/dsgn360/project-1/

http://myweb.students.wwu.edu/~smiths73/dsgn360/project-1/