How To Understand Web Architecture: The Restaurant Analogy

How does one understand web architecture? If you are a seasoned web developer, you live and breathe it. For newbies or non-techies, here is an analogy to help plan your next byte.

What Does My Lunch Have to Do With Software?

Let’s think of modern web applications as a restaurant. When using the word app in this article, just assume its either a browser application, website, mobile application, or video game with web components.

Obligatory tasty looking food for those that need to go on their lunch break

The reason I use a restaurant is that most people have been in a restaurant, so this analogy should work on 99.9% of the audience that is in a field related to web software engineering.

The last 0.1% — I’m sorry, but I’ll buy you lunch.

Welcome to ServerHut

When initially approaching a restaurant, you are first presented with the sign or logo on the building — very much like the logo you would have on your app, or the URL you’d have for your website. Just like a restaurant, an app has a limited amount of time to make an impression on the visitor, usually about 15 seconds.

Let’s visualize this a little.