Need Advice: Designing Real-Time Food Pricing Website with Live Data Updates

[emma_7440]

Hey everyone!

I'm currently working on a project for a food pricing website focused on the U.S. market. The idea is to create a seamless user experience where visitors can check real-time menu prices across various fast-food chains. Since prices can fluctuate based on location and promotions, integrating a real-time pricing feature is a priority.

My goal is to make the website as user-friendly as possible, especially for users on mobile devices. I've designed a basic layout in Adobe XD that keeps the interface clean, with easy navigation through popular food categories, but now I’m facing a few challenges:

1. Real-Time Data Fetching: I’m considering using APIs, but I’m curious about best practices when handling live data that updates frequently. How do you ensure the design doesn’t lag or disrupt user experience when the data is refreshed?

2. UI Components for Price Updates: Since prices might update as users browse, I’m looking for ideas on how to incorporate subtle yet effective notifications within the UI, so visitors know they're always viewing the latest prices without it feeling too intrusive.

3. SEO Considerations: To help this site rank well on search engines, I want to structure the design with SEO best practices in mind. Any tips on balancing a clean, responsive design with SEO-friendly elements?

Any advice, examples, or resources would be awesome. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Thanks!

[Spas K.]

The data fetching stuff is mostly a development issue that can be tackled differently based on how the website was built in the first place, where data is taken from, technical limitations, pricing etc. Not sure if here is the place to ask about that, I'd suggest reddit, specifically r/webdev

On the second point - add a very small (perhaps font size 12) "Updated X" info at the bottom of each card. Like "Updated recently", or "Updated today", "Updated 3 days ago" etc. You can color code them as well.

On SEO - again, not much of an Xd community forum question - make sure to write texts based on what users would search for to find a website like yours, rather than describing the products themselves.

Some free tips - use accent colors sparingly - having all buttons and section titles in red is not great. Also - pill-shaped buttons touching the edges of the card - doesn't look good. Those product titles should just be black text, and you could have a more subtle outlined button at the bottom of each card. I'd get rid of the big red elements altogether and make cards cleaner, focus on the image and the price. Also - your box shadows are too big, something like 4px Y offset & 8px blur would look way better.

Something else - there's no search option, which would be the most important thing on such a website. Have a big fat search bar at the top. If I want to check the price on something in particular, I don't want to scroll and look for it.

[reign_9527]

Hello everyone!

I’m working on a Sonic Drive-In menu pricing website for the U.S. market, focusing on real-time menu prices that vary by location and promotions. The design is clean, mobile-friendly, and organized by menu categories, but I need advice on a few challenges:

1. Real-Time Data: Best practices for using APIs to fetch live prices without disrupting the user experience.
2. Price Updates: Ideas for subtle UI notifications to show updated prices without being intrusive.
3. SEO: Tips on balancing responsive design with strong SEO for better rankings.

Any insights or resources would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[reign_9527]

Sounds like an exciting project! For real-time data fetching, caching mechanisms like SWR or React Query can ensure smooth updates without lag. For price updates, consider a subtle animation or a small 'updated' badge next to the prices. For SEO, focus on fast loading times, structured data , and mobile-first design. I’m working on a food-related website myself and found that user-focused features like these really make a difference!