Designer & Developer · Freelance
Cositas Deliciosas — Full website redesign, New Haven Connecticut
Result
+20% Online Orders
Speed
−73% Order Time
Type
Website Redesign & Brand design
Client
COSITAS DELICIOSAS
A community favourite preparing to grow
Cositas Deliciosas is a beloved Mexican touch-and-go restaurant rooted in New Haven's Latino community. Known for fast service and loyal regulars, the business was preparing to open a second location — which meant online ordering needed to actually work.
Their existing site was a placeholder: hard to navigate, unstructured, and not built to convert. As the second location neared, these gaps became a direct bottleneck.
Problem 01
No navigable menu structure
An undifferentiated list caused customers to drop off before ordering. No categories, no scanning — just scrolling.
Problem 02
Confusing navigation
Customers couldn't find what they wanted quickly. The nav offered no clear hierarchy or direction.
Problem 03
Poor mobile experience
The primary ordering audience — people on their phones — had a frustrating, broken experience.
How I approached it
Phase
What I Did
Why It Mattered
Discovery
Owner interviews + competitive audit of local restaurant sites
Defined goals, constraints, and content priorities before any design work began
IA & Menu
Worked with the kitchen team to categorise all items across both locations
Enabled fast scanning — customers find what they want in seconds, not minutes
Visual Design
Designed brand-aligned UI: bold, warm, playful without chaotic
Maintained the community identity that made Cositas successful in-store
Navigation
Custom navbar that broke conventions intentionally for the brand
Quirky enough to feel on-brand; clear enough to still function as standard nav
Development
Built and launched the full site in Framer
Fast, mobile-responsive, and owner-maintainable without dev support
Key decisions
The custom centred navbar — brand-playful but navigation-sound
A professional filter & sort bar to explore a large menu
01
Brand-Aligned Navigation
A centred, icon-forward navbar that captures Cositas's playful energy while following standard usability conventions. The decision to break convention was grounded in brand, not aesthetics alone.
02
Categorised Menu
Collaborated with the kitchen to group items into clear categories across both locations. Customers now scan and decide in seconds rather than scrolling an undifferentiated list.
03
Mobile-First Layout
Primary ordering happens on phones. Designed mobile-first rather than adapting from desktop — every interaction tested for thumb-reach and tap-target size.
Before
✗
Flat, unsorted menu with no categories
✗
Navigation with no clear hierarchy
✗
Desktop-only layout
✗
No ordering flow
✗
No room to scale to second location
After
✓
Categorised menu across both locations
✓
Brand-aligned custom navigation
✓
Mobile-first responsive design
✓
Direct ordering integration
✓
Scalable structure for second location
+20%
Online orders from original location post-launch
−73%
Reduction in average time-per-order online
✓
Scalable foundation live ahead of second location launch