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Internet Outpost Cafe

by Michael Allen Smith

This review was from February 2000. The site no longer exists.

Name: Internet Outpost Cafe
URL: www.iocafe.net
Coffee Genre: Coffeehouse

Finally A Good Coffeehouse Web Design!

When it comes to the Internet revolution, good web design seems to have escaped almost every coffee house in America. The same cafes that create beautiful lattes have some of the worst web pages on the Internet. One big exception is the Internet Outpost Cafe in St. Pete Beach, Florida. The Internet Outpost Cafe's web site should be a role model for all other cafes with an Internet presence. The IOCAFE provides the user with almost all the information a cafe customer would care to know and it presents it in a colorful and easy-to-navigate design.

visit the INTERNET OUTPOST CAFE home page

Important Information

What web site items are useful to customers?

  • Address and phone number
  • Hours
  • Directions to store and maybe a map
  • A drink menu complete with descriptions and prices
  • Pictures of the cafe
  • A way for customers to order on-line (if the cafe sells coffee or equipment).
  • Nice, quick-loading graphics with easy navigation
  • Something fun like a live Web Cam

What IOCAFE does right

The Internet Outpost cafe posts it's address, directions to the store, phone number, fax number and store hours. They also have incorporated pictures of the inside of the cafe into a colorful top navigation bar. The Internet Outpost sells coffee via it's on-line store called Beans and Leaves. As you have probably guessed by the title, the IOCAFE has Internet access for the coffee patron. The web site has a page devoted to that service complete with pricing. They even have a Live Web Cam.

Not Perfect

The one thing that is missing from the site is also absent from most coffee sites: the drink menu and prices. Do they serve ristrettos or carry soy milk? I don't know. Having a page devoted to the drink menu with descriptions and possibly pictures would make this site perfect. Given the current level of detail with the site, I wouldn't be surprised if they added this information rather quickly. On a plus note, they do have pictures and descriptions for their sandwich menu (no prices though).

Summary

Most cafe web sites include very little information and have ugly designs. In contrast, the Internet Outpost Cafe has created a useful web site for their customers. Other coffee houses with lesser web sites would do well to use this site as an example of a what a quality cafe web site can look like. INeedCoffee is proud to award the February 2000 Site of The Month award to The Internet Outpost Cafe.