IHOP posted the best sales in a decade by making 3 major changes to the menu

IHOP just posted the best sales increase in a decade.

The company credits its recent success with a new-and-improved menu.

"It's like a Jedi mind trick that gets customers to order a side of bacon," Venessa Wong at Bloomberg Businessweek wrote last year.

Here are a few of the major changes IHOP made:

1. New "Add a side" boxes next to entrees. The placement makes it more likely that customers will be enticed to order more food.

2. Photos of the entrees next to the items. This keeps the diner's attention more than blocks of text.

3. Trimming the menu. IHOP now offers 140 items, down from 180. Joe's Crab Shack has also benefitted from cutting menu items.

Here's what a page from IHOP's menu looked like before the redesign. Note the crowded text and confusing layout:

And here's the same page on the new menu. It features better organization and enticing photos of the combo meals: