Meet the "menu engineers" who optimize restaurant revenue

I like reading about these kind of optimizations so that I can spot them in action. Of course menus are engineered.

A few of the myriad strategies employed by menu engineers like Benesch:

• Using words like “signature,” “original,” and “famous” to make high-margin items more appealing.
• Removing the dollar sign ($) from the dish prices. Studies show that customers spend more when the price is presented as a standalone number.
• Enlisting the magic number for items per food category. At fast-food joints, it’s 6; for snazzier joints, it’s 7 appetizers/desserts and 10 main courses.
• Retooling design elements: menus with big fonts and no more than 20% white space improve the dining experience.

The obvious next step is digital menus that dynamically change presentation based on the person looking at it. Using the front facing camera you could detect gender and facial expression, and then adjust on page transitions.