The Miele Guide
The Miele Guide, the first independent and authoritative restaurant guide in Asia, was published in 2008 by Ate Media. The guide book celebrates Asia’s best chefs and restaurants. The 2008/2009 edition ranked Asia’s top 20 restaurants and listed another 300 fantastic places in which to dine in Asia. In the 2009/2010 edition, coverage has been expanded to cover 400 restaurants in total.
To facilitate the Miele Guide, Ate Media engaged COMA’s Design Director, Aen Tan, to design the user interface for the Miele Guide website. Ate Media had a few stringent criteria, mainly, the development of an online voting implement that is crucial to the Miele Guide. The voting implement allows registered members to vote for top restaurants as well as those that deserve an entry in the prestigious guide. The user interface had to be kept simple for ease of use among the diverse demographics in Asia. A multi-language component was also requested.
The Miele Guide website was kept simple but effective in guiding users to solicit information and to vote for their favorite restaurants. With the voting implement as the core of the website and a necessary extension of the printed guide, the form was kept simple, visible and accessible. This encourages members to vote and leaves less room for error. And keeping in mind simplicity and accessibility, the forms for registration and for ordering the Miele Guide are also devised in a clear and navigable manner.
