DIgital Menu Design Frustrations
Brands ignore their design partners and make every mistake chasing profits
STOP MAKING IT OVERWHELMING!
QSR brands are making big mistakes with their drive thru digital menu boards. The largest brands are missing the opportunity to tell stories about their products and bring their menus to life, while creating a seamless omni-channel experience for their customers. Instead their rush to leverage digital technology and chase profits is falling prey to their worst instincts and group-think resulting in a hot mess that is frustrating customers.
Despite the need for the drive thru ordering experience to be quick and easy, suggesting a pared down simple-to-navigate menu, brands see the percentage of their sales from this critical channel and throw every item and gimmick on their digital menu boards hoping for more.
Do a search for the leaders in QSR digital menu board (DMB) adoption and the brands in the photos of these articles, are the very same brands struggling to crack the code on menu design. Guaranteed. I have personally worked with many of them and I know what they are grappling with:
The biggest issue is too much stuff! The offenders are putting everything they offer into their drive thru menu design - 15 combos, everyday value items, LTOs, upselling sizes, personalization sauce options, catering pricing, kids menus, promotional tie-ins, vegan variations, all-day breakfast, seasonal beverages, and snack-sized portions. MAKE IT STOP! This doesn’t work for the drive thru ordering occasion and absolutely not on the limited screen real estate.
Rotating screens to cram it all in. Running out of space? Just use the magic of digital and rotate your menu right in the middle of someone’s ordering experience. (God people hate this.) And no the “7 second” rotation rule is not going to save you.
Animation for the sake of animation not storytelling. (Look my french fries are moving!) Again and again we’ve all seen lame attempts and taking advantage of the digital technology and animating something just for the sake of animating something. Making things wiggle and move around for no reason doesn’t make for a good ordering experience.
Treating all digital channels the same is not omni-channel. The storytelling options you have in your kiosk, app, or even interior digital menu boards, IS NOT THE SAME in the drive thru. A little goes a long way. And not all content can be easily repurposed. Did you shoot a content piece vertical for your app and now need it horizontal for the DMB? Want to switch out your sides or drinks on your combos but shot them all together. Have you never considered having a modular content strategy to your menu design? We should talk.
