Paik's Noodles Austin, 홍콩반점0410

Design a digital menu display that communicates the restaurant’s menu items clearly from a distance, streamlines the dine-in and ordering experience, and reflects the brand's aesthetic.
Role
Visual Designer
Team
Paik's Noodle Austin
Service
Graphic Design, Menu Design, UI

Goals & Requirements

1. Must be readable from a distance (~10+ feet)
2. Fit within TV screen dimensions (16:9) and 3 TV layout
3. Display menu categories in a digestible format
4. Use appetizing visuals and branding elements

Research & References

To have a better understanding of digital menus, I studied other menus inside the H-mart food court where Paik's Noodles is located.

I found that with the predominant Korean and Asian audience, there was a mixture of Hangul, the Korean alphabet along with the English alphabet. I studied the difference in typography size and contrast that would account for the blending of the two alphabets.

  • The English alphabet characters vary significantly in shape and width, like "W" and "I", which leads to uneven visual spacing when used.
  • In contrast, Hangul, the Korean alphabet is more geometrically consistent and block-based, which allows characters to occupy similar visual space and maintain structural uniformity even at small sizes.
  • The structural uniformity makes Korean more predicatable for alignment and spacing, but can also feel more dense when paired with the English text.

Design Approach

Layout Design

Grid-based organization by food category.

Designing a clear and intuitive visual hierarchy was essential to ensure that customers could quickly scan and understand the menu from a distance.

I came to the conclusion that the name of the item, price, and a brief description were most important for customers when looking at the menu.

Realizing that not all customers would be familiar with the menu items, I chose to include icons & item images for easy scanning and visual representation. Creating visual recognition and appeal for dishes was an important in encouraging customers to explore new items.

Visual Design

As part of the project assets, the client provided official brand logos, which I carefully integrated into the menu design to maintain brand consistency and recognition.

The color palette was carefully selected to balance brand identity, visual clarity, and readability from a distance—crucial factors for a digital screen menu displayed in a restaurant setting.

The fonts that were chosen for this project were Kandal Medium and Slam Oblique Regular Rounded for the English alphabet, and 조선궁서체 (Joseon Gungseo-che) for Hangul, theKorean alphabet.

When these fonts are paired together, they compliment both the Hangul and English alphabet's structural legibility.

Final Design

The final TV menu design is a cohesive, modern, and visual communication tool that streamlines the customer's ordering experience while staying true to the restaurant’s brand.

The layout, typography, and color palette work together to create a screen-optimized, easy-to-scan menu tailored for both Korean and non-Korean customers.

Reflections

This project was less about creating a pretty menu, but creating a visual communication tool that worked for diverse audiences in a busy restaurant setting.

I shifted my thinking from designing for interaction to designing for glanceable content, visual hierarchy, and information density which was both challenging but rewarding.

I have a better understanding of the business priorities of promoting signature/customer favorites while making sure to streamline the ordering process for cashiers and the aligning everything with the existing POS system.

Do you need a new digital menu?

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