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Zukis Restaurant

The unique tastes of traditional Turkish cuisine — a full-stack design and development project delivered in 3 weeks. Top 2 on Google within weeks of launch.

Role

Full-stack — UI/UX, Development, SEO, Email Automation

Tools

Figma · Firebase · React JS · Twilio SendGrid · Google Analytics · Microsoft Clarity

Timeline

3 weeks

Outcome

Top 2 Google ranking within weeks

Zukis Restaurant

Overview

The challenge

Zukis needed a complete digital presence — designed, built, and launched — within three weeks. The brief called for a site that captured the warmth and authenticity of traditional Turkish cuisine while ranking on Google for local searches.

Project goals

  • Design and build a responsive restaurant website from scratch
  • Rank highly on local Google searches within weeks of launch
  • Integrate online booking and email automation
  • Deliver analytics infrastructure to track performance from day one
Top 2
Google ranking within weeks
3 wks
Full design-to-launch timeline
5
Competitor sites analysed
50
User survey responses

Research

Competitive analysis & user survey

A competitive analysis of 5 restaurant sites revealed the gaps. I selected 5 top-performing restaurants based on search rankings and user reviews. Key differentiators for Zukis: mobile-first design, SEO excellence, and an enhanced reservation system using Firebase.

Competitor gaps

  • 78% of users preferred simple, one-click reservation systems
  • 85% accessed restaurant sites on smartphones
  • Slow load times and unresponsive designs were the top pain points
  • 58% rated clear navigation as the most critical aspect

User survey insights (50 responses)

  • Target: urban diners aged 25–45, frequent restaurant-goers
  • Prioritised mobile-first development and fast-loading pages
  • Clean, intuitive interface for navigation and reservations

UX Design Process

Information architecture & wireframes

Since faster loading times and a simple interface were a priority, I designed Zukis as a single-page application. The IA focused on the five key sections users care about — Home, Menu, Reservation, Gallery, and Contact.

Zukis information architecture

Wireframes

I created low-fidelity wireframes in Figma for all main pages — Home, Menu, Make a Reservation, About Us, Events, and Contact — iterating based on team feedback and usability principles.

Zukis wireframes

Final UI

The dark gold design system evoked the warmth of Turkish hospitality. High-quality food photography, clear menu navigation, and a prominent reservation CTA were the three pillars of the final design.

Zukis final UI design

Design decisions

  • Mobile-first layouts with touch-friendly tap targets throughout
  • High-contrast typography for outdoor mobile readability
  • Simplified booking flow — name, date, party size in three steps
  • Structured menu with category filtering for fast discovery
  • PWA-enabled for users who want an app-like experience without installing

Development

Technical architecture

The site was built in React JS with Firebase for backend infrastructure. Twilio SendGrid handled automated email confirmations. Microsoft Clarity and Google Analytics provided behavioural and performance tracking from day one.

Frontend

React JS with responsive, component-based architecture for fast iteration

Backend

Firebase with real-time database, Cloud Functions, and security rules

Email automation

Twilio SendGrid for booking confirmations and marketing sequences

Analytics

Google Analytics + Microsoft Clarity for heatmaps and session recordings

Results

Outcome

Top 2
Google ranking within weeks of launch
3 wks
Full design-to-launch delivery

Within weeks of launch, Zukis secured a top-two Google ranking for local Turkish restaurant searches — driven by clean semantic markup, structured data, and a fast-loading mobile-first codebase. Higher visibility translated directly to increased foot traffic and reservations.

Delivering a full-stack product in three weeks required making sharp prioritisation calls early. The PWA integration, real-time Firebase reservations, and SEO strategy all pulled in the same direction: give users an experience so fast and frictionless that choosing Zukis over a competitor felt like the obvious move.

Key takeaways

  • SEO is a UX decision. Fast load times, clean URLs, and responsive layouts aren't just search signals — they're the same things users reward with longer sessions and completed bookings.
  • Constraints sharpen design. A three-week deadline forced prioritisation: one single-page app, reusable components, a modular build. The constraint made the product leaner and faster than a longer timeline might have.
  • Technical breadth has real value. Owning the full stack — design, build, Firebase, SEO, email automation — meant nothing fell through the cracks between handoffs. The client got a coherent product, not a stitched-together one.