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Dakota's on the Cove is a casual, family-friendly neighborhood restaurant that exudes warmth and community. Our design team aimed to attract more local customers and tourists by making their website easy to navigate and aligning social media strategies with business goals.
Dakota’s On the Cove
2025
Role
Branding, UI/UX Designer
Services
Brand Strategy, Visual Identity, Website Design
Collaborators
Gabriela Marie, Natalie Sesodia, Deby Nouanlasy
Problem
Most internet users research brands online before purchasing or becoming customers. In addition to the ordering system, Dakota’s on the Cove needs an effective digital website that will enable potential customers to discover the restaurant.
Solution
Enhance Dakota’s on the Cove’s online presence by creating a visually appealing, responsive website with seamless navigation and integration.
User Research
Understanding the Problem and Customer
In the Discovery phase, we identified essential website features for Dakota by analyzing competitor presence and customer needs within the Bronx seafront market. Through research, we identified opportunities, including focusing on Dakota's local restaurant space, customer and event spaces, and leveraging social proof and high-quality images.
From customer analysis, we identified pain points and developed three personas: senior Irish Americans, middle-aged parents, and college students.
User Flows
Define User Flows And Toast Integration
Before starting the website design, we worked with developers to keep Toast and the business website separate, ensuring that website pages were developed independently of Toast-controlled areas.
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Sitemap
To develop the page hierarchy based on competitive insights and client opportunities, we defined the website scope, research needs, and page requirements through team alignment. We partnered with both the PM and development teams to provide invaluable support when we needed to integrate third-party platforms into the website. By working closely with engineers, we discovered an alternative implementation approach that reduced complexity while maintaining a seamless user experience.
Brand Identity
I created brand guidelines early on, ensuring consistency across the design. Brand guidelines maintain consistent visual elements and messaging to reflect the restaurant's unique character. The brand identity process helps in creating reusable templates for social media posts and ensuring the website design aligns with the brand.
Website Wireframe
We built the wireframe and started the website design. After all the research, the result is a dynamic, engaging, and responsive website that showcases Dakota's values and serves as a reliable hub for customers. The design team created extensive prototypes and ensured the website looks good on different screen sizes, with optimized responsiveness for mobile and tablet.
Problem Area 1
Visibility of Value Proposition
Issue:
Users often overlook the value proposition when scrolling due to its large font size, making the business type unclear.
Action:
Reduce the length of the value proposition, decrease the font size, and adjust the background color to improve visibility and clarity for users.
Outcome
Seamless product, data-driven growth ahead.
The outcome was a seamless product that met user needs while addressing technical challenges—a solution that would not have been as effective without cross-functional collaboration.
For the next step, we will enable Google Analytics (GA4) as the KPI performance tracker of choice to provide data that assesses Dakota’s on the Cove’s engagement and digital experience. Key metrics include click-through rates for social media posts, website bounce rate, online orders or reservations, and brand recognition.
Dakota will be able to better understand conversion from online interest, leading to increased foot traffic, higher customer visits, and revenue growth.
Usability Testing
We evaluated website functionality and navigation through real customer feedback to ensure an intuitive website experience.
After showing the improved areas to the development and product management teams, we decided to make changes based on the severity rate. The developers provided feedback during this process, which helped us refine the designs and avoid technical roadblocks.
Problem Area 2
Clarity of Group Order Menu
Issue:
Some users were confused by the "Dock Menu" label, as they were unfamiliar with the term used by the restaurant.
Action:
Recommend using a more recognizable name, such as "Catering Menu," and changing the button to the primary button color for better visibility.