Texas Roadhouse

Lori and I love to split a steak from Texas Roadhouse. Unfortunately we can't afford to do so very often, but that's another gripe.

Tonight I wanted to call ahead to reserve a table so I went to the Texas Roadhouse website to find the number to call.

Surprisingly, I was hit with two web design blunders.

1. Splash page

I don't know how the splash page ever made it mainstream. It serves no purpose besides giving the user one more step to go through to get to what they really want. Worst about Texas Roadhouse's splash screen was the fact that it took time to load, and once it did load, all it did was show you a neon logo with a bug zapper sound (as if bug zapping is what I want to think of when I go to your restaraunt).

2. Automatic Audio

Never ever hit your site visitors with automatic audio. Never. When you put audio that automatically starts playing on your website you are making the erroneous assumption that the visitor does not have his speakers turned up too loud, is not already playing music, is not at work, or does not have a sleeping baby in the next room. Besides being just plain annoying to most everyone, you're really going to turn off any visitor that fits any of the above scenarios. So just don't do it, mkay?

PS: The steak was good, and so was the service.