Sushi Dendermonde – A Sushi Takeaway Business
Overview
Sushi Dendermonde is a family-owned sushi takeaway business in Dendermonde, Belgium.
When Sushi Dendermonde approached me, they were grappling with a website that was visually unappealing and functionally outdated.
Originally built on WordPress, the site suffered from a lack of mobile responsiveness and a design that did not leverage modern web standards.
The navigation was cluttered and unintuitive, built around a default theme that poorly represented their vibrant sushi business.
This hampered user engagement and also failed to attract new customers, crucial for their growth.
My Role
UX and Web Designer
Scope / Deliverables
UX, SEO, cPanel / Website Design
Tools
Figma, Photoshop, cPanel, WordPress
Time
3 months including SEO
Challenge
Recognising the core issues—deep navigation, ineffective labelling, and misalignment with user expectations, I set out to revamp their website.
The existing structure buried essential content like their menu in a poorly labelled ‘Gallery’ section, which was misleading and ineffective.
My goal was to simplify user interactions from the moment they landed on the site, enhancing the journey from discovery to action (ordering food).
Since there was no online payment integration so the action of ordering food in Sushi Dendermonde’s case would be a customer calling them to order the food.
Execution
Designed user journey, identified key areas of focus and developed a website.
We concentrated on user pain points, identifying primary indicators of customers abandoning the website. We executed these changes, leading to significant results in a short timeframe.
Using the ‘rule of three’ and understanding cognitive load principles, I simplified the site navigation to three core areas: Home, Menu, and Contact.
The goal was that that users should effortlessly navigate from the introduction through to the menu exploration to order placement with as little friction as possible.
1. Home Page Revitalisation
Crafted an engaging headline: “Get Amazing Sushi at Sushi Dendermonde, where tradition meets taste.”
Integrated compelling narratives about the origins and ethos of Sushi Dendermonde, connecting emotionally with both local and expatriate communities.
2. Menu Optimisation
Transitioned from a static PDF to a dynamic, mobile-optimised menu page, ensuring accessibility and ease of use across devices.
Highlighted dishes with pricing and descriptions to entice orders, directly addressing the high mobile user traffic revealed by analytics.
Developed two menu versions, optimised for screen sizes, and received customer commendations.
3. SEO and Performance Optimisation
Implemented RankMath SEO to enhance organic search visibility, focusing on ‘sushi’ related keywords within the Dendermonde area.
Developed a custom style guide based on their existing logo, ensuring a consistent, professional look across all pages.
4. Trackers and Analytics
Added plugins to track the number of clicks across the website for better insights.
Outcome
A responsive, well-designed website: sushidendermonde.be
Generated 2.2k visitors in 90 days, mostly organic, that led to keeping the chefs busy.
Achieved top 5 rankings in ten of the 20 most searched local SEO keywords in the sushi niche.
All of these generate an additional ~€5k+ in monthly revenue, all within 90 days. Currently, we are in the third month of achieving this increased revenue as of May 2024.
I also helped save over 50% on the domain, hosting and website maintenance fees.
Reflection
For SEO, I focused on the fundamentals rather than following the industry buzzwords, and that worked great. Setting up and optimising Google Business profile well and focusing on the keywords that users actually use makes a huge impact.
After going through the websites of numerous restaurants and food businesses, big and small, I found that a lot of these businesses overlook information design in key areas in the customer journey.Â