The Infatuation
Turning trusted restaurant reviews into a mobile-first discovery experience with personality
Overview
The Infatuation, a go-to platform for trusted restaurant recommendations, needed a mobile-native redesign that reflected its witty brand tone. Facing competition and changing user expectations, they aimed to enhance content discovery, personalize experiences, and elevate their voice across mobile channels.
Key Points
- Created a fully native iOS experience tailored for restaurant discovery on the go
- Integrated editorial guides and city-specific collections to streamline decision-making
- Matched the app’s tone and micro-interactions to The Infatuation’s distinct editorial personality
- Built a CMS-driven backend so editors could update guides, venues, and features without developer support
Problem
The Infatuation needed to scale from a handful of cities to a national dining platform
As Co-founder Chris Stang put it, “We needed our web platform to become more useful to our users and readers, and we needed to think about things beyond just reading a restaurant review or guide on a webpage.” The challenge was clear: scale The Infatuation’s brand and content model into something more dynamic, more interactive, and ready for the next stage of national expansion.
Solution
A nationwide platform served with smart tools and an appetite for scale
Mobelux rebuilt The Infatuation’s entire digital experience around a flexible, coast-to-coast foundation. We paired bold, editorial-driven design with modern engineering so the team could keep dishing out reviews while the product quietly handled growth, performance, and richer user interactions.
Scalable Architecture & Custom CMS
WordPress gave way to a custom, Django-based CMS that lets editors snap together text, photos, quotes, and embedded restaurant data in seconds. Behind the scenes, a fresh information architecture and cloud-ready infrastructure ensure the site can expand from a few cities to every zip code without breaking a sweat.
Color-Driven Ratings With Distinction
Using the historic ratings data, we introduced a vibrant, color-coded scale that instantly signals how a spot stacks up. Animated graphs and spectrum bars appear on every review, making it effortless to scan lists or maps and zero in on the best bites.
Interactive Restaurant Finder
Built with React/Redux, and Mapbox APIs, the new Restaurant Finder turns wanderlust into dinner plans. Users set a location—current GPS, neighborhood, or landmark—then filter by cuisine or “Perfect For” tags to surface curated picks in real time. It’s the heart of discovery and a perfect showcase for the brand’s ever-growing catalog.
Results
A platform that delighted users, thrilled the client, and attracted major acquisition
The redesigned Infatuation platform delivered exactly what the brand needed: a beautifully executed, scalable foundation that users embraced and the editorial team could grow with. The result wasn’t just a better website—it was a stronger business.
Users Loved the Experience
From the interactive Restaurant Finder to the bold new ratings visuals, diners engaged deeply with the new tools. Discovery became fun, intuitive, and visually expressive—earning praise from longtime fans and new users alike.
Editorial Efficiency, Elevated
The custom CMS transformed how The Infatuation produced content. Editors could build consistent, rich posts faster than ever, allowing them to keep up with demand as the brand expanded into new cities and formats.
A Seamless Partnership
The Infatuation team found in Mobelux a partner that could match their high design standards, move quickly, and collaborate fluidly. Ideas flowed freely, and features were built just as fast—creating a relationship that felt less like vendor-client and more like an extension of their internal team.
Fuel for Growth—and Acquisition
The upgraded platform didn’t just improve the user experience—it laid the groundwork for long-term value. In 2021, The Infatuation was acquired by JPMorgan Chase, a major milestone made possible in part by the strength, scalability, and polish of the platform we helped build.
Takeaway
Built to grow, designed to delight
With a custom platform tailored for scale, The Infatuation transformed from a city-specific review site into a nationally recognized discovery tool—without ever losing its distinctive voice. By combining editorial integrity with seamless technology, we helped them deliver a more engaging, efficient, and enjoyable experience to both users and editors alike.
I was impressed with the design and clarity of Mobelux’s portfolio, and I liked the concept of working with a team that acts as an extension of your own company.
