It’ll Do Burgers: A Full-Stack College Project Combining UI/UX, Responsive Design, and Back-End Development

The It’ll Do Burgers website project was a standout assignment during my college studies in 2023. It served as a culmination of everything I had learned up to that point about web development, responsive design, UI/UX principles, and visual branding. The project was created from scratch in a local environment and represented a comprehensive learning experience that ultimately contributed to me graduating with a 4.0 GPA.

Project Overview

This project was designed to simulate a real-world restaurant website. We were tasked with creating a fully responsive site that not only looked professional and user-friendly, but also incorporated a structured back-end and showcased creative graphic design. The It’ll Do Burgers concept was fictitious, allowing creative freedom while maintaining the professional constraints of building for a real client.

This assignment emphasized the importance of clean design, intuitive navigation, and a seamless user experience across all devices. It wasn’t just about functionality—it was about creating an engaging online presence for a local eatery that needed to stand out in a competitive digital landscape.

Technologies and Tools Used

The website was coded and tested locally, without using GitHub, as part of the classroom lab environment. All development was done on a personal local server setup.

Core Web Technologies:

• HTML5 – for structure and semantic layout

• CSS3 – for styling and responsive media queries

• JavaScript – to enhance interactivity and functionality

Adobe Creative Cloud Tools:

• Adobe Illustrator – for creating logos, icons, and branding visuals

• Adobe Photoshop – for editing food images, optimizing assets, and color correction

• Adobe XD – for prototyping and wireframing the site layout

• Adobe InDesign – for mock print materials like menus and posters

These tools were instrumental in elevating the final project with polished visuals, strong branding, and thoughtful user experience planning.

Design Process: From Concept to Completion

We started with a rough concept of what the restaurant brand should be. I developed wireframes in Adobe XD, mapping out the key pages of the site: homepage, menu, about us, contact, and order online sections. The branding centered around a quirky, casual burger joint feel—bold typography, a retro-inspired color palette, and mouthwatering food photography.

Key UI/UX Elements:

• Clear menu structure with bold CTAs

• Mobile-first responsive layout

• Balanced use of imagery and text

• Color contrast and font hierarchy to support accessibility

Each page was designed to feel part of a cohesive brand, using the same color schemes, textures, and visual elements. The fonts chosen were clean but bold, supporting both mobile readability and brand tone.

Back-End Simulation and Page Management

While we didn’t build a full database-driven application, we simulated back-end concepts by building a structured file system and organizing content modularly. JavaScript was used to simulate dynamic content transitions between pages, and I employed vanilla JS methods to:

• Toggle menus

• Display modal windows (for location info or featured burgers)

• Implement form validations (contact forms/order forms)

The goal was to create a restaurant website that not only looked the part but felt responsive and alive—enhancing the customer experience as much as possible within the project scope.

Image Optimization

I sourced high-quality stock photography for the burger images and processed each one for web optimization:

• Resized for mobile and desktop breakpoints

• Compressed using Photoshop’s Save for Web settings

• Applied alt-text and captions for accessibility

The optimized images helped reduce page load times and contributed positively to simulated SEO performance, which was part of the grading rubric.

Accessibility and Responsiveness

We were graded heavily on how well the site performed across devices. To meet these criteria, I built mobile-first using CSS3 media queries. I ensured:

• Text was legible on all devices

• Images resized fluidly and preserved aspect ratio

• Navigation was usable via touch and keyboard inputs

Color contrast was checked using web tools to ensure compliance with WCAG accessibility guidelines.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge 1: Menu Organization

Burgers, sides, drinks, and combos needed to be displayed clearly. I used a tabbed interface built in JavaScript to allow users to switch between categories quickly without scrolling.

Challenge 2: Form Layout and Validation

Contact and order forms needed to be both functional and stylistically consistent. JavaScript was used for client-side validation, with visual feedback provided for input errors.

Challenge 3: File Organization

To mimic back-end architecture, I created a modular file structure with separate folders for images, CSS, JS, and HTML partials. This helped maintain organization as the project scaled.

Outcome and Academic Achievement

The project received an A grade and was a defining piece of my college portfolio. The professor praised its strong branding, clean code, responsiveness, and clear attention to user experience. It played a key role in maintaining my 4.0 GPA and validating my capabilities in both front-end design and entry-level back-end concepts.

Keywords and Skills Showcased

• Responsive Web Design

• UI/UX Design

• JavaScript Interactivity

• Image Optimization

• Accessibility Best Practices

• Adobe Creative Cloud Workflow

• Web Performance Optimization

Final Thoughts

The It’ll Do Burgers project was more than a school assignment—it was a complete immersion into what it takes to build a responsive, user-centered website from scratch. It allowed me to practice:

• Applying real-world design tools

• Creating engaging user journeys

• Writing maintainable, semantic code

• Optimizing assets and navigation for performance

This experience laid the groundwork for many of the professional projects I would take on later in my career. It was a critical step in transforming classroom concepts into real-world-ready skills—and I look back on it as one of the most fun and impactful projects I’ve completed.