Swipe layout

The swipe layout shows one dish at a time as a card the guest swipes through. It is the most playful of the five and the most specialised: it turns a menu into an experience, and it is genuinely wrong for most menus.

What it looks like

• One item on screen, as a large card with its image.
• Name, price and description on the card.
• The guest swipes sideways to move to the next item.
• The category navigation moves between sections.

When it works

• Short, curated sections — a signature cocktail list, a dessert selection, a tasting-style card.
• Complete, high-quality photography.
• Bars and restaurants whose positioning is playful.
• A menu meant to be discovered rather than searched.

When it does not

• Anything a guest needs to scan. Finding a specific dish requires swiping past everything before it.
• Long menus. Fifty swipes is not a menu, it is a task.
• Price comparison; only one price is ever on screen.
• Guests in a hurry, at a counter, or ordering for a table.
• Accessibility-sensitive contexts, where a swipe-only interaction is a barrier.

Be honest about the trade-off

This layout optimises for delight and sacrifices findability. That is a legitimate choice for a cocktail list of twelve drinks and a poor one for a card of eighty dishes.

If you want the visual appeal without the cost, Masonry shows the same photography while keeping the menu scannable.

Photography

Every item needs a strong image, in one consistent orientation and style. A card with no photo, in a layout that shows one card at a time, is the most exposed gap in the entire product.

Descriptions

Short. The card carries the image, the name, the price and the description together, and there is no room for a paragraph. Use the long description for anything more.

Section length

Keep sections to about ten items. The guest's willingness to keep swiping runs out quickly, and the last cards in a long section are effectively unread.

If a section needs more than that, split it into two categories.

Check it on a phone

• [ ] Swiping is smooth and lands cleanly on the next card.
• [ ] The card fits the screen without cutting off the price.
• [ ] Text is legible over every image.
• [ ] Reaching the end of a section takes a reasonable number of swipes.
• [ ] The category navigation lets guests skip a section entirely.
• [ ] Allergen icons remain visible on the card.
• [ ] A guest can still find a specific dish in a reasonable time — if not, reconsider the layout.