This story occured on a sunny sunday morning.

I was on my way to meet with some friends for indoor rock climbing, which is something I do regularly. In case you haven't done it before, it's great for critical thinking.

Seriously, you have a higher chance of having a car accident than falling from the rock.

I went to a fast food chain that has acceptable quality breakfast. As expected, there were only two people in the line. In my opinion, it was the perfect situation, I would have a few seconds to read the menu.

The breakfast menu was on the right side of the menu board. and the line was on the left side. I would say it I was able to read the big items on the menu, the croissan'wich, the burgers and the price. There were also a bunch of little text written beneath the big title items. If the burgers and sandwiches were displayed in 32 pt font then those small text were in 10 pt fonts, or less. I couldn't read them from where I was standing and I refused to make the effort. I chose to ingore those little text. I can be arrogant.

So it was my turn to order. I told the cashier that I would like a number 1 and just wanted the sandwich, not the meal. That part seemed easy enough, now the trouble began.

"What kind?" asked by the cashier. "What kind?" I was a bit puzzled. "Yeah, what kind?" The cashier wasn't make any eye contact, he was looking left and right like something else was going on. Meanwhile, I am sure I was the only one in line.

"What do you mean 'What kind'?, I'd like a croissan'wich, that's all. Not the meal, just the sandwich." I was really annoyed by it, I used to be a cashier when I was in high school. I don't think I was that annoying.

Then the cashier seemed really annoyed, he simply pointed at the menu instead of talking to me. I didn't get it, I walked closer to the menu and I was still confused. "What?", I said, as I was looking back at him.

"Ham or Sausage. Would you like ham or sausage?" That answers my question. I said "Ham." and we finished the transaction within seconds. Both of us just simply bothered by what just happened. He might have thought that I was just another arrogant customer he had to deal with in his daily basis.

I was not mad at him, at all, trust me. I don't get mad at the people who have no manner. I just get mad at the people who made the decision of not educating him about customer service.

I was also mad at the people who made decision on the typography content, placement and its wording of the menu. Seriously, I was mad as hell as a visual communicator. I think it was torturing for the audience to make hard efforts to read menu from fast food restaurants. Let alone the francise can be own by anyone since they are listed on NYSE.

How can someone with visual impair or sight problem able to read 10pt font text 10 feet away?

That, the font size problem, was only the beginning for me. I have yet to mention about how chaotic the menu board was.

At times, we argue that the big guy(say, Mickey D's) dominaties in the market that it isn't fair. Well, this time, the smaller guys are asking for it.

The way I see it, they were trying have as many option for customers to choose as possible. The menu was meant to demostrate its variety. At times, variety can be chaotic.

All of a sudden, I wondered how this restaurant operates. The menu is complicated and crowded that I can't really figure out where to start. Having newly placed promotional materials along side with ages old items on the menu didn't smashed well. Plus, the plastic glass that contained the menu was covered in cuts and dirt.

The font that they used is similiar to Rockwell, which is a great title and display font but not a good or subtitle or text font.

I wondered who their focused customers were. Mostly repeated customers, I assumed. Good luck for them to find new consumers who would be willingly to make an effort on the menu.

It's one thing to have variety on the menu and it's another issue not to be able to inform the consumers. Let alone choosing an item on the menu.

If they were only expecting repeated customer, good luck to their stock-holders. My uncle operates an restaurant that relies mostly on repeated customer and it is going down the toliet.

Okay, enough complains. My point is: Legibility matters, either it is on a printed menu or on the web.

Good typography depends on the visual contrast between one font and another and between text blocks, imagery and white space surrounded.

As a non-native English speaker/reader, I am easily distracted by bad typography and disorganized information. Restaurant menu, for one, was a nightmare when I moved to this country in the age of 14. Not only I have to pretend to act "cool", I also have to pretend to know what I am ordering. It wasn't easy, I have never pulled it off.

If one can clean up majority of the blocks that can be a good start. Replace them with smaller piece of plastic that can be easily replace. Overall, more white space is needed.

More importantly,A grid can be useful, the first thing the user observes is the overall layout when one looks at a menu, then they will move on to the individual items. If it is easy to the eyes, The experience will be better.

Lastly, rethink about the emphasis: Many restaurants do a good job of making huge contrast on text to emphasis the importance of one item (in this case, a croissan'wich?), but if I can't read the choice of mention the menu, how can we finish the transaction?

What is more important? Having a thousand choices on the menu that customer find it difficult to navigate or a clean simple menu that makes one a happier customer?

I want to be a happier customer.