How Can I Improve a Food Menu Design for Better User Experience?

We've just had some discussions about doing menus, but mostly from project/client/"management" perspective.

Menu design is one of those black holes in the field, in which nearly all restaurants (make that "restaurant managers") seem to be interested only in the fastest, cheapest, lowest-demand process. Quality, on all levels, is pretty much set aside except that printed menus have to more or less match the patron expectations. Beyond that, it seems like most menus are done in-house (badly), as a perk or comp or service by a food or beverage provider, or by someone (inside or outside) using the simplest DIY layout tools along the lines of Canva. Or, G'helpus, Word or Powerpoint, and as badly as those tools can be used.

If there are any standards, or any meaningful published research, or any 'expert guides,' or anything of the kind, they escaped my poking around over a few weeks. So I'd treat it like any other public-facing doc: make it clear, make it attractive, make it branded. And put some thought into organization so that the diner's eye can easily find both groups of stuff (like sides) and traverse a path over the options. (I personally hate menus you have to flip over/through multiple times just to get the basics, because the working elements are so badly organized and presented... because, you know, everyone knows the sides for the entrees are on the back, under the kid's drink list.)

And clearly readable. We had some fun talking about white-tablecloth stores where the clientele have to use lighters, pocket flashlights and (in the present day) phone flashlights just to read the 9pt pale brown script on tan parchment.

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

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