The two burger chains I used were Wendy’s and Burger King.  While both sites have unity, emphasis, and similar layouts, if I had to choose which site I think is better at first glance, I would go with Wendy’s.

In comparison the sites both open with similar layouts.  They both have slide shows of featured items with the company’s logos in the upper left hand corners.  Even though the layouts are similar, Wendy’s layout fits the screen and Burger Kings layout is only half of the screen.  While the half of page does not take away from its usability, it’s very boring and un-inviting.  The menu bars across the tops are similar except, Burger Kings’ bar actually looks like buttons where as Wendy’s only uses the hover technique.  A new web user may never find these buttons because they do not appear to be buttons.

Wendy’s site is very balanced with not only the use of images but with the use of color.  Burger King’s site is not balanced and the colors are very dull, which screams  “FUNERAL HOME” not “BURGERS!!!… Come eat here!”

When you click on the menu options of both sites they both use drop down boxes.  Wendy’s drop down options are more direct where as Burger King’s basically gives you the entire menu in small print, forcing its visitors to read.  When you select menu on the Wendy’s site, it gives you image thumbnails of pictures for you to choose from.  You can also choose from the list of items or choose by clicking a picture, which is a very nice feature as you can just about click anywhere.

Overall, Burger Kings site requires your reading glasses which is something that folks tend to stare away from while using the Internet, Wendy’s makes it pretty simple for you.  In example, under careers on the Wendy’s site, you pick your area of interest; you are then re-directed to find a store near you that is hiring by simply entering your zip code.  On the Burger King site, there are a bunch of boxes to read before you go on to the next step.

Lastly, Wendy’s prides itself in their responsibility to their customers.  There is so much emphasis on it that they included it in their menu bar at the top of the page more then once.  That says to me that you are going to receive a good quality hamburger when you frequent their establishment.  The Burger King site touches briefly about their commitment to premium ingredients but they do not make it a big deal like Wendy’s.

In conclusion, after reading Klug’s, five important “things” to make sure users see and understand, I am certain that Wendy’s is the better site.  Wendy’s has: the more prominent things at the top of the page, each subtopic listed under its topic is related, there is great hierarchy, they use conventions and they avoid the use of needless words.  Although the background is a little noisy, it is inviting as they use images of their quality ingredients.  Wendy’s has the better site hands down!