Rate the Plate

8/3/2019 Rate the Plate

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Rachel SalabesJune 24, 2011


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Overview

With the popularity of food trucks and events such as Restaurant Week, thereis no doubt that Washington, D.C.s food scene is thriving. Embracing thispopular niche, Rate the Plate is a review website that will become an

essential tool for food lovers in the D.C. area.

Online reviews can be overly wordy when readers are often looking for onepiece of information. In the case of restaurants, this is often What should Iorder? Rate the Plate fulfills the need for quickly answering this question. Byvisiting the site, readers will be able to immediately see how a restaurant'sdishes have been rated by users.

According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), research shows thatsocial media and review sites are increasingly affecting how consumerschoose where to eat.1 In addition, the popularity of other online review sites

indicate that Rate the Plate would attract a high amount of traffic. Althoughcatering toward a much wider audience, Yelp had over 50 million uniquevisitors in April 2011 alone and has gathered over 18 million reviews.2 Thesenumbers indicate the reviewing trend is not going anywhere in the nearfuture.

Reviewing restaurants is one of the most popular trends on online reviewsites. On Yelp, the majority of reviews, 25 percent, go toward restaurants.3

Sites focused solely on food have also proved their popularity. For example,UrbanSpoon, an online restaurant finder and app, has 10 million unique usersa month.4

Demographics

Rate the Plate is targeted toward technology-savvy food lovers. Of course,foodies come in all ages; however, it is important to look at demographicsthat will be more inclined to use this type of website. Rate the Plate will catertoward internet users between 18 and 49, a demographic that has embracedonline review services. This is evidenced by Yelps most recent trafficanalysis, which shows 42 percent of its users are between 18 and 34 and 33percent are between 35 and 49.5 Research shows that online sites dedicatedto food also draw similar demographics. For example, the majority of the

audience for Food Truck Fiesta, a local site that tracks and blogs about D.C.

1 Ruggless, Ron. NRA forecasts return to industry sales growth. Nation's Restaurant News.

http://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growth2 An introduction to Yelp: Metrics as of April 2011. www.yelp.com/html/pdf/Snapshot_April_2011_en.pdf3 Ibid.4 Urbanspoon celebrates 10 million iPhone app downloads. http://www.urbanspoon.com/blog/48/Urbanspoon-

Celebrates-10-Million-iPhone-App-Downloads.html5 An introduction to Yelp: Metrics as of April 2011. www.yelp.com/html/pdf/Snapshot_April_2011_en.pdf
http://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growthhttp://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growth


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food trucks, is 35 to 49 year olds.6

It is also essential that Rate the Plate cater toward individuals who use socialmedia. 51 percent of these individuals say restaurants are an essential partof their lifestyle compared to 43 percent of all consumers.7 Research by the

NRA also shows that frequent users of at least one social media tool or onlinereview site are more active in the restaurant community.8 92 percent of theseindividuals eat a meal at a sit down restaurant at least once a monthcompared with 84 percent of all adults.9 Because Rate the Plate is based onWashington, D.C. restaurants, the site is also targeted to those who livewithin the city and suburban areas close to the city.

Mission Statement

The mission of Rate the Plate is simple: Rate the Plate is a unique social toolfor D.C. food lovers. Share your opinions on dishes in D.C. restaurants and

food trucks or have Rate the Plate help you decide what to order with asimple search. With Rate the Plate, you never have to wonderWhat should Iorder?

Content

The majority of content on Rate the Plate will be information contributed byusers during the review process.In order to create a community atmosphere,a user must sign up for an account to leave a review. This allows for a moreinteractive and social environment. For example, if a user enjoys the ratingsand comments that another user has left for particular dishes, he or she may

see they have found someone that has similar taste as their own. The usercan choose to follow that person and see what dishes they rate. If the usersees that person has left a high rating for the Pizza Focaccia at Paolo's inGeorgetown, he or she may decide to try that restaurant and order the samedish the following week. The user would also know what dishes to potentiallyavoid based on lower ratings that particular person left for dishes at Paolo's.

In addition to local restaurants, users also have the ability to review foodtrucks. The popularity of food trucks in the D.C. area has skyrocketed,particularly in the last year. According to statistics from the end of 2010, D.C.mobile vendors have garnered more than 47,000 Twitter followers.10 The

NRA has also listed food trucks as one of the top trends in its 20116 Quantcast. http://www.quantcast.com/foodtruckfiesta.com 7 Ruggless, Ron. NRA forecasts return to industry sales growth. Nation's Restaurant News.

http://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growth8 Ruggless, Ron. NRA forecasts return to industry sales growth. Nation's Restaurant News.

http://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growth9 Ibid.10 Carman, Tim. Inside D.C.'s Food-Truck Wars. Washington City Paper.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39815/inside-dc-food-truck-wars/full/
http://www.quantcast.com/foodtruckfiesta.comhttp://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growthhttp://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growthhttp://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39815/inside-dc-food-truck-wars/full/http://www.quantcast.com/foodtruckfiesta.comhttp://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growthhttp://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growthhttp://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39815/inside-dc-food-truck-wars/full/


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Restaurant Industry Forecast. According to the report, mobile kitchens orfood trucks are likely to become even more widely available than they arenow.11 Food Truck Fiesta already lists at least fifty food trucks operating in theD.C. area.12

The process to leave a review is simple. Rate the Plate is continuouslyupdated with restaurants opening in the area along with their menu. Theuser will type in the name of the restaurant in the search bar. After clickingon the proper restaurant, the user will be presented with the opportunity torate their dishes.

To rate each plate, the user will click an arrow and be presented with a dropdown of menu items. After selecting the dish, the user will be asked to ratetheir plate on a scale of 1 to 5. Since numbers vary in meaning depending onthe person, each number will have a short description next to it in order tomaintain consistency. After a user clicks submit, the ratings will be averaged

with the votes of other users

New restaurants open all the time; therefore, it is always a possibility thatRate the Plate has not yet added a menu to its database or a menu hasbecome outdated. To account for this, there will be a button present on everypage saying Are we missing a menu? If a menu is not yet uploaded, userscan still type in the dishes they ate and submit a rating. When the menu isadded, user dish votes will be matched to the proper menu item.

Along with ratings, users can leave comments. Rate the Plate is aboutdelivering clear information quickly; however, users will still be provided with

the opportunity to share more details. This may include why they selected aparticular rating, sides they ordered, which appetizers they recommend, andso on. A comparative analysis to other local food sites has shown thatcomments are part of creating an interactive environment; however,comments will be limited to 500 characters to prevent the site frombecoming overly text heavy.13 After all, simplicity on a website is key.14

Users also have the option to upload photos of their meal to a collectivegallery for the restaurant, which will be displayed with user credit. This hasproved to be a popular feature on review websites such as Yelp. According toYelps latest statistics, every 30 seconds, a photo is uploaded from the Yelp

mobile app.15

11 Ruggless, Ron. NRA forecasts return to industry sales growth. Nation's Restaurant News.http://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growth

12 Food Truck Fiesta. http://www.foodtruckfiesta.com13 An examination of local food sites showed that comments sections are still an important feature. The

Washington Post provides the ability to comment, as well as a discussion section. TBD, Washingtonians Best

Bites, and local food blogs (such as Capital Spice and Capitol Bites) all allow for user comments.14 Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Google Do?. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2009. Page 116.15 An introduction to Yelp: Metrics as of April 2011. www.yelp.com/html/pdf/Snapshot_April_2011_en.pdf


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Incorporating social networks into the review process is essential forreaching Rate the Plate's target demographics. According to the Pew Internet& American Life Project, internet users of all ages are more likely to use asocial network site today than they were in 2008. As of 2010, 80 percent of

internet users between the ages of 18 and 35 were using a social networkand 48 percent of internet users over the age of 35 had used a socialnetworking site.16

By clicking share, the user can tweet I just gave a 5 to the CevicheVeracruzana at Oyamel @Ratetheplate or change their Facebook status tosay, [Name] just rated her meal at Zaytinya on Rate the Plate. Rate thePlate understands that social media has become an important part of thedining experience. As the NRA says, staff members in the District ofColumbia decide where to go for lunch depending on what social-mediamessages they have received in the morning.17

Leaving a review looks like this:

A main feature of Rate the Plate is the search bar, which will be highly visibleacross the top of all pages of the site. Here, there are several search optionsin order to provide a flexible experience to the user. Since anyone can searchand view results on Rate the Plate, any visitor may type in the name of therestaurant, the type of food (e.g. Thai, Italian, American), or location. Theuser will be presented with a list of results depending upon the search query.For example, if someone has searched for a restaurant name, the user will be

presented with a list of possible matches. If a user searches for a type ofcuisine, a list will be presented with restaurants that match. If someonesearches by location, the user will see restaurants in the area, no matter thetype of cuisine they serve. In the list of search results, the top three dishes

16 Social networking sites and our lives. Pew Internet and American Life Project.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Technology-and-social-networks/Part-2.aspx?view=all17 Ruggless, Ron. NRA forecasts return to industry sales growth. Nation's Restaurant News.

http://www.nrn.com/article/nra-forecasts-return-industry-sales-growth


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for each restaurant will be visible.

After a restaurant has been clicked, Rate the Plate results will look

like this:

Rate the Plate is a simple, straight-forward concept and the design of thewebsite will reflect this. As Jeff Jarvis emphasizes, The simpler and clearerthe design, the better.18 In addition to the simple design of dish ratings, thehomepage will display only five restaurants in order to not overwhelm theviewer. The restaurants that are displayed are dependent upon the dishesthat have been most recently rated.

Each restaurant will have a user image of the recently rated dish if available.If not, the image area will be filled with the Rate the Plate logo. Images willbe small so that upload time will be short. A smaller column will run downthe left side of the homepage and will be an area to incorporate additional

elements, such as social media and advertisements.

Additional Website Elements

Rate the Plate is a social experience based around the community of users.Therefore, in addition to the share option during the review process, Rate thePlate will have a Twitter feed streaming down the side of the homepage.Those that tweet @RatethePlate or use the hashtag #ratetheplate willappear in the Twitter feed. For example, an included tweet may look like this,Just had fantastic pad thai at Mai Thai #ratetheplate. Rate the Plate willhave its own Twitter account, as well. Sample tweets will encourage user

involvement such as, The highly anticipated Graffiato opens today! Dontforget to #ratetheplate! The Twitter feed will also be used to interact withusers.

A Rate the Plate Twitter account will contribute to the site's success.According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Twitter use by Ratethe Plates key demographics has increased in the past several years. Twitter

18 Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Google Do?. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2009. Page 116.


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use for users between the ages of 25 and 34 has doubled since late 2010,growing from 9 to 19 percent.19 Twitter usage between the ages of 35 and 44has also grown significantly, increasing from 8 to 14 percent.20 The datashows that Twitter is highly used by those in urban areas, representing 15percent of users compared to 7 percent in rural areas.21

Another important additional element of this website will be the Rate thePlate mobile app. Rate the Plate is a service that a user will want to accessanytime and anywhere. Dining experiences are often spontaneous. If acustomer enters a restaurant on a whim and hasnt heard any informationabout their food, Rate the Plate should be accessible immediately to helpthat customer choose what to order. If a user is excited about a meal theyjust had and wants to rate the dishes immediately, accessing Rate the Plateneeds to be a possibility.

Mobile apps for both food and review sites have proved to be successful.

Yelp's mobile app has 3.7 million unique visitors and over one-third of Yelpsearches come from a mobile device.22 Urbanspoon has also found much ofits success through a mobile app, which reached ten million downloads inSeptember of 2010.23

According to Pew's State of the News Media 2011, nearly half of one of Ratethe Plates key demographics (18-29 year olds) obtain local information viatheir mobile device.24 Additionally, 37 percent of all mobile device ownerssay they get material about restaurants or local businesses on their mobiledevice.25 Research has also shown that consumers want a mobile app that ispractical and in real time.26 The Rate the Plate mobile app would fulfill both

of these characteristics, updating dish ratings in real time.

Editorial Voice and Tone

Overall, there will be little original content on the website since mostinformation will be contributed by users. Original content will be found in theAbout Us section and the FAQ, as well as directional elements of the website.Readers will be able to see the most original content on the Rate the Plate

19 Smith, Aaron. Twitter Update 2011. Pew Internet and American Life Project.

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Twitter-Update-2011.aspx 20

Ibid.21 Ibid.22 An introduction to Yelp: Metrics as of April 2011. www.yelp.com/html/pdf/Snapshot_April_2011_en.pdf23 Urbanspoon celebrates 10 million iPhone app downloads. http://www.urbanspoon.com/blog/48/Urbanspoon-

Celebrates-10-Million-iPhone-App-Downloads.html24 Kiesow, Damon. State of the News Media 2011: The 3 things people want on mobile devices and how you can

provide them.Poynter.http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/123202/state-of-the-news-

media-2011-the-3-things-people-want-on-their-mobile-devices-and-how-you-can-provide-them/25 Ibid.26 Ibid.
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Twitter-Update-2011.aspxhttp://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/123202/state-of-the-news-media-2011-the-3-things-people-want-on-their-mobile-devices-and-how-you-can-provide-them/http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/123202/state-of-the-news-media-2011-the-3-things-people-want-on-their-mobile-devices-and-how-you-can-provide-them/http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/123202/state-of-the-news-media-2011-the-3-things-people-want-on-their-mobile-devices-and-how-you-can-provide-them/http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Twitter-Update-2011.aspxhttp://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/123202/state-of-the-news-media-2011-the-3-things-people-want-on-their-mobile-devices-and-how-you-can-provide-them/http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/mobile-media/123202/state-of-the-news-media-2011-the-3-things-people-want-on-their-mobile-devices-and-how-you-can-provide-them/


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Twitter feed. This content will remain neutral and simply serve as a way toencourage user participation and interact with users.

Competitive Landscape

The DC foodie has a variety of resources that already exist; therefore, Ratethe Plate is entering a relatively competitive market. There are manyresources on established websites with existing reputations, such asWashington Post, TBD, and Washingtonian. D.C. also has a community ofestablished food bloggers, such as Capital Spice and Eat.Drink.DC.

The Washington Post presents one of the most comprehensive local D.C. foodguides on the web, consisting of reviews, recipes, and dining guides.However, its comprehensiveness may be its downfall. A visitor of this sitemay not know where to begin. Once again, the key to a successful website issimplicity.27 Furthermore, while many of these websites provide restaurant

reviews, this is the voice of one writer. Why trust the opinion of one whenyou can see the thoughts of dozens, maybe even hundreds?

Yelp serves as one of the major sources of competition for Rate the Plate as itdominates the online review market. However, both Yelp and The WashingtonPost are moving in the opposite direction of the minds of todays digitalsociety. Yelp provides an extensive amount of information, ranging fromreviews of doctors to nightclubs. In addition, many Yelp reviews are wordy.Scanning a lengthy review for specific information is a timely process bytodays standards.

According to author Nicholas Carr, the internet has changed the way weread. We now scan for key words and phrases and get agitated when readinglong passages of text. When quoting a Nielsen report, Carr writes, 'How dousers read on the web?'...'They don't.'28 Rate the Plate caters to the internetmind. The site quickly delivers information on one topic, in a visually simpleand streamlined manner.

Popular D.C. food blogs and critics also serve as competition. Often, userscome to respect the opinions of bloggers, as well as trusted critics from sitessuch as The Washingtonian. While these sites could be the competition, apartnership between Rate the Plate and these local sites would be more

valuable. Rate the Plate will encourage local bloggers and critics to join thesite and contribute their vote.

For example, Washingtonian has a large following and is trusted by itsreaders. When displaying vote results, there will be an asterisk next to the

27 Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Google Do?. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.28 Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.New York: W.W. Norton & Company,

2010. Page 136.


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proper dish that says *Washingtonian recommends this dish, linking to theirreview. This will create a relationship with local websites and blogs, wherethey will be encouraged to use and contribute to Rate the Plate and the linkwill drive traffic to their site. As Jeff Jarvis explains, Every link and everyclick is a connection, and with every connection, a network is born or grows

stronger...The more connections there are, the greater the value.29

Potential Advertisers

Rate the Plate has a variety of potential advertisers; however, to maintainRate the Plates clean design, users will never be overwhelmed with toomany advertisements. Advertisements will only be placed along the side ofthe site or in a small vertical banner ad. This will be limited to twoadvertisements on the homepage, and up to three on search result pages.

Rate the Plate will be the perfect environment to incorporate advertisements

from deal sites such as Groupon, Living Social, and Buy With Me, which oftenprovide deals on local restaurants and bars. These sites have proven interestin advertising on popular review sites and on sites that are focused on food.For example, a Groupon ad is currently located on the homepage ofUrbanspoon.30

Online delivery sites, such as Allmenus, Seamless Web, and Mr. Deliverywould be eager to advertise their services on a site that is focused on localfood. Local restaurants would also have a strong interest in advertising onRate the Plate, knowing that the site's visitors enjoy dining out more than theaverage adult. As mentioned previously, Rate the Plate also provides the

opportunity for partnerships with local blogs and websites focused on food,providing benefit to both Rate the Plate and its partners.

Summary

Aimed toward food lovers between the ages of 18 and 49, Rate the Plateusers will no longer have to wonder what to order. Users can search for dishratings at local D.C. restaurants and food trucks or leave their own ratings toshare with the community.

Rate the Plate will incorporate social networks and a mobile app to appeal to

social media and technology savvy consumers, as research has shown thatthese types of individuals are more likely to be involved in the restaurantcommunity. Despite a competitive environment, Rate the Plate will separateitself with the ability to quickly and simply find information that pertains toone topic. Rate the Plate will attract advertisers, such as Groupon and LivingSocial, and also build partnerships with local food blogs and websites to form

29 Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Google Do?.New York: HarperCollins, 2009.30 Advertisement located on the bottom of Urbanspoons homepage on June 23, 2011.


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a mutually beneficial relationship. Rate the Plate will become a tool that D.C.food lovers cannot imagine living without.

Rate the Plate

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