Monthly Archives: December 2014

Client Profile, Digital Menu Board, Menu, Menu Design, Menuat, Restaurants

Client Profile: The Kookaburra & Social Media Integration

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The Kookaburra, a Saint Augustine staple for coffee and Aussie Pies, opened the doors to their second location in Saint Augustine last week.

Kookaburra Digital Menu Board

The Kookaburra- Downtown Saint Augustine

As one of Menuat’s clients, The Kookaburra’s owners are able to actively respond to the seasonal demand that comes with operating a business in a tourist destination. The Kookaburra is located right in the heart of Saint Augustine’s Historic District and uses Menuat’s Instagram integration feature to engage with their customers.

The Kookaburra’s customers spend more time looking at their menu as the photos rotate, resulting in up-selling and suggestive selling of menu offerings.

Managing Partner, Spencer Hooker, states that “The Kookaburra has enjoyed a marked increase in sales after switching out our chalkboards for digital menu boards. The organization of the menu, the legibility of the display, the speed of updating our offerings and the ease of use have all served to streamline our operations and queue management. The menu boards have paid for themselves several times over.”

Digital Menu with Instagram Integration

Digital Menu with Instagram Integration

Digital Menu Board, Digital Signage, Menu Design, Products, Tips

Photo Editing Apps for Digital Signage & Social Media Images

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At Menuat, we get a lot of questions from business owners about creating images to use on their digital signage or social media pages. Many problems seem to come from resizing images to fit the appropriate space. Most of the time these edits are not too difficult or involved if you know how to use a few simple tools. Here are a couple apps to help you create striking photos for your digital signage or social media pages.

Pixlr Image Resizing

Pixlr is a photo editing application that can be used for photo editing (resizing, watermarking, adding text, effects, stickers etc.). Here is a basic tutorial for resizing images through Pixlr.

First, download the Pixlr app on your computer (there is a phone app also but resizing is not available). Then go to the ‘File’ dropdown menu on the top left of your screen and open the image you would like to resize.

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Next, go to the ‘Fast’ drop down menu and select ‘resize’.

pixxxlr

From this screen, edit the shorter side of the to your desired dimension while keeping the aspect ratio locked. Don’t worry about the opposing dimension becoming larger than the your desired size. We will fix that in the next step. Click Apply.

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Next go to the ‘fast’ tab again and select crop. When the dimensions appear, change the opposing dimension to your desired height or width. A grid will appear previewing the image at the specified dimensions. Use the dot in the center of the grid to move the grid to capture the area of the image you would like to display and click apply.

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Then save the image with an appropriate filename and adjust quality to ‘medium’ for a faster load time.

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There are a lot of photo editing apps available on the App and Chrome Stores. Most of them basically do the same things. Some alternative user friendly apps for photo editing include RePix, PhotoScapeX, and FX Photo Studio Pro.

Opinion, Products, Technology

Product Review: Google Wallet

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After reading about CurrentC’s recent security breach where a list of e-mail addresses was compromised, I decided to do some research about these new digital wallets. Luckily for CurrentC, the only information taken were e-mail addresses for a few beta testers and test accounts. On the scale of security breaches, this one was maybe a ‘blue’ on the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory System Color Chart. However, consumers are always slow regain trust for companies after getting hacked.

There are a few of these Digital Wallets on the market: Passbook, Google Wallet, and LifeLock Wallet. Since I haven’t upgraded to the iPhone 6 yet, my current iPhone (5s) does not support NFC (Near Field Communication) payments. NFC Payments use a small loop antenna that creates a small magnetic field that can be detected by another loop antenna’s magnetic field, if it is in close enough range (less than an inch). This feature is currently only available on certain Android phones and the iPhone 6.

One thing all of these digital wallets have in common is that they all use various levels of encryption to protect your sensitive information. A random sequence of random numbers are assigned to your credit, debit card, bank account number, and name.

One feature that set Google Wallet apart in my book was the option to get the Google Wallet Card. Because my iPhone 5s does not support ‘tap & pay’ (NFC Payments), I decided to download Google Wallet and see what it could do. I set it up using my bank issued debit card. When adding a new card, the camera screen comes up and you just have to align the rectangle with the edges of your card. Then it automatically pulls the information from your card accept for the billing address and security code.

The Google Wallet Card is basically a debit card that is not directly tied to your bank account (unless you choose that option). It allows you to spend directly from your Google Wallet account balance. I transferred some money from my debit card to use a trial. That way you can not spend more than is in your Google Wallet Account. Google also has options to automatically refill your account balance when it dips below to a certain point. This could be used for budgeting or even as a child’s first debit card.

Another great feature of Google Wallet is the ease of sending money between users. Anyone with a Google account can register for a Google Wallet account for free. To send money, you can just simply type in their Gmail address or choose from the contacts in your phone that have a Gmail email address associated with it. It makes it easier to pay friends back if you’re unable to separate checks at a restaurant or bar. There are no fees to send money between users.

Overall, Google Wallet is extremely user friendly. Since this test a few weeks ago, I still find myself using my Google Wallet Card instead of my bank issued debit card for everyday purchases at the local coffee shop or even at parking meters.

Digital Menu Board, Legislation, Menu Design, Restaurants, Tips

FDA Menu Labeling Resource Guide

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Today FDA is releasing the final ruling for a new set of guidelines for the Menu Labeling Provision of the Affordable Care Act. These new guidelines require all franchises, vending machine companies, movie theaters, concession stands, and any other similar retail food-type establishments with more than 20 units to accurately display the calorie count of all menu items on paper menus as well as menu boards.

Here is a resource guide to help you navigate the new regulations:

FDA Resource Guide

US Federal Register Guide

FDA Press Release

Now more than ever Digital Menus will help restaurant owners stay on top of their printing costs, especially for those restaurants who shop around for different brands of indigents. Every time the brand of an ingredient is changed, the calorie count of the menu item will change as well. To stay compliment with these new laws, restaurant owners will have to change their menus often.

These new regulations will take effect on December 1, 2015.