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Pancheros bites into mobile Web with streamlined site experience

Pancheros Mexican Grill, a fast-casual Mexican restaurant franchise, has debuted a redesigned Web site with streamlined navigation and custom content that will help it engage on-the-go mobile users.

The cleaner, more contemporary site now boasts smoother navigation, eye-catching design and custom content that engages users and reflects the brand's quirky personality. With distinct iconography and vivid photography to accompany the branded content, the goal is to insure the brand shines through, while the aesthetics have also been given a facelift.

?Not so long ago it was enough to be able to surf the Web, or access information while on-the-go, even if the Web site itself looked terrible. But that was OK," said Daniel Weisbeck, CMO at Netbiscuits.

"The mobile Internet was such a luxury that user experience was something few even considered."

"Delivering the same user content similar to the desktop was just not an expectation. How times have changed," he said.

Sugar and spice
Pancheros' Web page preserves its humor and wit with the menu page description reading, "we could have built pyramids, we chose burritos instead" and the group ordering tab saying, "have burrito will travel."

The fast-casual has grown and evolved since its revamp in 2012 and wanted to mirror that in its digital footprint while preserving the elements that really made it stand out such as the modern use of tiles, icons and photography while implanting a simpler experience so fans can easily get to desired content.

While the responsive design allows for mobile engagement with the brand to be correcty formatted, it does not boast its own version of the parent site, which is interesting considering almost every brand believes there is practicality in creating separate designs for different device experiences and compatibilities. And as smartphones and mobile devices continue to evolve, brands must revamp and update the designs cyclically.

In the field of Web design and development, developers are quickly reaching the point of being unable to keep up with the endless new resolutions and devices. For many Websites, creating a Website version for each resolution and new device would be impossible, or at least impractical. There should be no consequence of losing visitors from one device for the benefit of gaining visitors from another.

Pancheros is smart to opt for a responsive design that responds to a user?s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. This eliminates the need for a different design and development phase for each new gadget on the market.

Boost your bistro
The biggest appeal of dining out is the pleasure of having everything brought to you. However a guest chooses to order a steak, the establishment will oblige. Responsive design creates a similar experience for a restaurant?s online presence, and when the UX is easy and intuitive, repeat business is sure to occur.

Mobile search is quickly surpassing that done on desktop, and nowhere is this trend more apparent than with restaurants. A reported 40 percent of an eatery?s Web visits derive from mobile devices, signifying how vital it is to design an impression that fits on-the-go consumption.

The need for bite-sized information coincides with movements in dining, where guests perceive sliders with different toppings to be more fun to eat than one big burger that?s the same from beginning to end. The same values hold true for mobile content, which has been forced to become condensed and witty as users swipe from site to site without embracing anything too deeply until something alluring entices them to stay.

A great design and rich experience that visitors can enjoy from all platforms is becoming a necessity rather than a nicety. Displaying information in a manner from which everyone can sample increases foot-traffic to a brand?s actual service post impression with virtual service.

"Once considered an advanced concept, responsive has now very much become the norm for mobile Web development," Mr. Weisbeck said.

"Irrespective of whether it is always a practical solution for every device type and context, it at least goes some distance to addressing mobile visitor expectations that your Web site will render correctly on their device."

Final Take
Michelle is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York