SaaSInclusive design

Good Food Talks

Made restaurant menus genuinely accessible for visually impaired diners, with adoption at Pret, Nando's, Wetherspoon, and TGI Fridays.

Client: Good Food Talks
Sector: SaaS
Year: 2014 – present

The brief

Good Food Talks set out to make restaurant menus more accessible, independent and inclusive for diners often excluded by traditional menu formats. The challenge was to create a mobile experience that could support different access needs, venue types and menu systems, while staying simple enough to use at the table.

What we did

Restaurant menus are a basic part of eating out, but for diners who are blind or partially sighted, they are routinely inaccessible without help. Good Food Talks set out to fix that. The app needed to make menus genuinely usable across iOS and Android, with voice interaction, high-contrast modes, and dyslexia-friendly typography. It also had to scale from independent restaurants up to national chains.

Founder Matt using Good Food Talks in a Fuller's pub

We delivered the app on FlutterFlow with a Firebase backend. VoiceOver and accessibility-mode toggles were wired in from the first build, not retrofitted. The platform hooks into restaurant chain APIs so menus stay in sync without manual content management on either side.

Voice interaction and screen-reader support across iOS and Android
High-contrast and dyslexia-friendly modes as first-class options
Restaurant chain API integration for live menu updates
A Firebase backend sized to support large national chains alongside independents

How we approached it

The team had to understand screen-reader gestures, navigation patterns and how users move through content when they are listening rather than scanning visually. That changed how we thought about the app's structure: how menus were grouped, how sections were labelled, how actions were ordered, and how users could move backwards, forwards or between categories without getting lost. Real users were involved throughout the build, testing the app in practical scenarios and feeding back on what worked, what caused friction and what needed to be clearer. That feedback directly shaped the product, helping us build an experience around real accessibility behaviour rather than assumptions about how accessible design should work.

Transforming the experience

Diners who previously needed someone to read a menu aloud can now navigate independently, with the same dignity as any other guest. The app has been adopted by major chains including Pret a Manger, Nando's, JD Wetherspoon, and TGI Fridays, putting accessible menus in front of millions of diners across the UK. The platform also has the technical foundation to keep adding partners without re-architecting.

Outcomes

Good Food Talks created a more inclusive dining experience for people who are blind, partially sighted or have reading difficulties.

Key outcomes included:

Independent menu browsing through users' own mobile devices
Screen-reader, voice interaction, high-contrast and dyslexia-friendly support
Live menu updates through restaurant partner API integrations
Scalable Firebase backend supporting independent venues and national chains
Adoption by major hospitality brands including Pret a Manger, Nando's, JD Wetherspoon and TGI Fridays
A stronger accessibility offer for restaurants wanting to serve more customers with dignity