The Ocean Restaurant ** is Vila Vita Parc’s fine dining restaurant, distinguished with two Michelin stars. As part of the resort’s internal design team, I contributed to the development of the restaurant’s website prototype, ensuring its digital presence matched the prestige of its culinary reputation.
CLIENT COMPANY
Ocean Restaurant ***
Vila Vita Parc, Portugal
YEAR
2022
EXPERTISE
Wireframes Low-Fi
Wireframes Hi-Fi
UI Kit
Prototype
UI Case Study
ROLE
UI Designer (Internal Team)
SEGMENT
Fine Dining, Michelin Star Restaurants
SOFTWARE & PLATFORMS
Adobe XD
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
IDEATION
Wireframes Low-Fi
Wireframes Hi-Fi
UI Kit
Prototype
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The project aimed to update and refine the Ocean Restaurant’s website layout, aligning it visually with the exclusive nature of a two-Michelin-star fine dining experience. The focus was on creating a sophisticated and user-centered design that resonated with the restaurant’s niche audience, while also ensuring consistency with Vila Vita Parc’s luxury identity.
CHALLENGE
The main challenge was to balance the Ocean Restaurant’s distinct identity with the broader branding of Vila Vita Parc, maintaining visual consistency while highlighting the restaurant’s unique prestige. Another key challenge was designing a flexible layout capable of showcasing the annually reinvented tasting menu: the structure needed to remain consistent while allowing for seamless content updates in text and imagery.
Additionally, the design had to meet the visual standards of other top-tier fine dining restaurants, ensuring Ocean’s online presence reflected its Michelin-starred status.
UI KIT
The UI Kit was developed to reflect the elegance and exclusivity of the Ocean Restaurant **. A refined typographic combination was selected, with Didot LT Pro conveying sophistication in titles and Lato ensuring readability in body text. For interactive elements, a clear button hierarchy was established, primary, secondary, and tertiary, providing both consistency and flexibility across the website. This approach reinforced the restaurant’s premium identity while guaranteeing a user-friendly and visually balanced design.
VISUAL DIRECTION
Hugo Serôdio
Mafalda David
DEVELOPERS
Bruno Mateus
Ricardo Jacinto
IMPACT
The project successfully elevated the Ocean Restaurant’s digital presence, aligning the website’s design with the exclusivity of a two-Michelin-star experience. The new layout introduced a refined visual identity that reflects both the restaurant’s gastronomic excellence and the luxury standards of Vila Vita Parc. The flexible structure allowed for seamless content updates, particularly showcasing the annually renewed tasting menu.
The redesign received positive feedback from the internal team, reinforcing the restaurant’s positioning within the fine dining niche and enhancing the overall user experience.