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It's all very well the a few restaurants are looking to help diners read their menus, what with flashlights and reading glasses. But how's this for a groundbreaking proposition: Printing menus that people can read. You know, bigger type, lighter paper with dark inks, more lighting, legible fonts... please? There's nothing more annoying than needing to hold the votive candle to the menu, only for the candle to be snuffed out by the melted wax. Maybe this is our role as pioneering foodie, to try to somehow make out the menu, but we just feel like cavemen at Lascaux.
In Psychology Today, there's a diagram of how the eye reads a menu. Unfortunately, the article isn't on line, but the gist is that with a two page spread, your eye goes to the right page's upper right corner first, then goes diagonally to the lower right (think from NE to SW), then to the opposite page. On a one page menu, people read from top to bottom.
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Upper right to lower right, NE to SW? I'm sorry, but that makes no sense. I'm pretty sure the former is a typo, but if you meant the latter, then people are reading right-to-left, which is the opposite of the way people read the English language. I'm pretty sure I start a menu on the upper left, where the appetizers usually are.
Well, this was about the science of menu reading. If I were better at Photoshop, I'd draw you the diagram, but imagine like this:
- Two facing pages (Left and Right)
- Each facing page has two columns
When reading the menu, the eye will look at the top right column of the right facing page first. I don't know why, but that's what a menu designer claimed in the study. And at first, it seemed to make intuitive sense (that's why people put ads on the right column, versus the middle/gutter in magazines and newspapers). THEN the eye goes to the lower left column, still on the facing right page. Yes, I know, weird. I'll try to find the magazine and scan in the image.
I am SO happy to hear that I am not the only one who moves the candle closer to read the menu! I'm canceling that ophthalmologist appointment first thing tomorrow!
i think newspapers also put their top story in the upper right (NE) corner.
not only do publishers (not the designers choice!) put ads on the outside, but usually on the right-hand page. if you flip through any mass-market magazine you'll see how ads are usually on the right and content on the left. with a feature story opening spread, the title and lead-in are usually on the right-hand page because that's where the eye naturally gravitates... there's more immediate impact for the reader.