What do you prototype first?

The diner path on a phone: find, read menu, filter, book. Brand polish follows a path that works.

Do you design in Figma forever?

No. Staging with a real Quiteful embed beats a static mock of a menu that will be out of date by the review meeting.

rough draft

processApr 6, 2026by LemonOctopus

We put the menu, hours and booking path in front of operators before we spend a week on parsley-grade photography layouts.

Polish without a path is how restaurants get beautiful sites nobody can use. We prototype the boring spine first.

Operators recognise their business faster in a clickable staging URL than in a deck. Put their dishes in. Put their hours in.

Separate exploration from execution. Rough is fine while we decide structure. Standards apply once we are building the real thing.

The live menu belongs in the prototype. Pretending the PDF is a placeholder trains everyone to ship the PDF.

Make it weird after it works. Personality is easier to add than a booking widget you forgot.

What do you prototype first?: The diner path on a phone: find, read menu, filter, book. Brand polish follows a path that works.
Do you design in Figma forever?: No. Staging with a real Quiteful embed beats a static mock of a menu that will be out of date by the review meeting.