On 26th May 2011 the EU Privacy Directive came into force, this means that under the new the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (popularly known as the Cookie Law) legislation, website owners need to protect the privacy and confidentiality of their users. This means taking the appropriate and known security methods to protect stored personal data. Because you store personal data in Cookie’s that means these little fella’s too.

Does this affect my business’s website?
Most websites and mobile sites use cookies in order to operate. They are used to enable shopping baskets, web analytics and advertising tracking technology, so if you are running a Google Adwords campaign, booking processes, email, display ads, social media plugins, etc you are and you need to be telling people how you are using their data and giving them the option to drop out. So yes, most people do and so you need to notify people how they are using that information in your Privacy Policy. In fact, many sites will not operate without cookies. For example, cookies are required to “remember” what items have been placed in a shopping basket.

What do I need to do?
There is a one-year grace period to comply with the new legislation, so companies are expected in this period to have it implemented, but the ICO won’t hit you with a fine just yet. Next year, will be a different matter.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have issued guidance requiring website owners to:

• Conduct an audit of cookie usage on your site
• Assess the relative intrusiveness of each of those cookies
• Choose an appropriate consent mechanism based on how intrusive they are

The ICO has the power to impose penalties for non-compliance of up to £500,000 in serious cases that cause “substantial damage or distress”. However businesses that can demonstrably show that they have taken clear steps to comply are unlikely to be fined.

How e-blueprint can help you comply with the new Cookie Law

Our team will undertake an audit of your website and how you store information. We will help you to meet the legal obligations imposed by the new law. The audit will consist of:

• Assessing the website cookies your website creates for users
• recommendations on the actions that you need to take to achieve compliance
• recommendations to include within your privacy policy
• Creating the necessary code to ensure users have the options to opt out
• ensure this is completed in way that does not reduce the effectiveness or usability of your website

We use cookie recording tools, combined with our experience in website usability and analytics, to ensure your website is compliant with the new law without hindering your customers’ user journey or conversion rate.

What’s the cost of compliance to my business?
Costs vary by size of website and the information you collect, but we can talk you through what a cookie audit and code implementation service will mean for your website. With fines of up to £500,000 for non-compliance, its a small price to pay for your peace of mind.

Rainbow Nursery Goods is a manufacturing company specialising in cot mattresses and rain covers for baby buggies and prams. They needed a website to allow customers to buy their products online and access information and contact details for the company. They also gave us a loose brief to create a new brand to reflect the nature of their business.

Solution

e-blueprint created a website using Magneto, a leading open source ecommerce platform. This allows Rainbow Nursery Goods to add products and organise them into categories from their own computers. To mange the sales they can download and print orders directly from the website. The website was kept light and uncluttered to make it easy on the eyes for customers to locate what they want quickly. The logo incorporates a sheep jumping over a rainbow, inspired by the phrase “counting sheep” giving a nod to the cot mattress business.

The Moel Siabod website looks so good is because of the brilliant photography. (By Showcasing the beauty of the area with stunning photography and video (by Steve Peake www.stevepeake.co.uk).

This will to attract people to Snowdonia and the café. We even included a photo gallery that allows the community to upload and share their own photos adding more community interaction and input.

With the Moel Siabod Mountain Café website we wanted to reinforce the sense of community. So we made it possible for the mountaineering community to share, add comments or send parts of the website to their friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+1.  Allowing people to interact with mountaineering, clubs and enthusiasts via social media and comments on the web site.  Linking the community and the café to interact with each other and create their own buzz about things like mountain walks, events and even the café food.

The Moel Siabod web site was a joy to work on. The subject matter is so diverse and interesting. But what really inspired us was Paul’s (the owners) vision of making his business more than just another café but something for the community. A vision that works especially well with the nature of how the internet works. Paul now has Mountaineering community hub, information/activity center and eatery. Without this vision and Paul’s openness to ideas we wouldn’t have been able to make www.moelSiabodcafe.co.uk such a great website. Read more about this project and the website in our showcase.

View case study

Well, we would say that, wouldn’t we? But here’s why. Because it takes the average site user less than 50 milliseconds to form an opinion on the quality of your site.

50 milliseconds… Good news if your site’s looking good: not so good if it’s not, as the user is then likely to transfer that opinion of your site to its content. It’s known as the ‘halo effect’, where the ripples of positivity you created with a beautifully designed website are transferred to all of your content and your competency; in fact, by now, you’d have to go out of your way to put them off.

Even Professor Gitte Lindgaard, who led the study at Ottawa University, was surprised by the results: ‘My colleagues believed it would be impossible to really see anything in less than 500 milliseconds,’ she said.

So, how does that translate to your website? How subjective is good design, and how do you make sure you’re pressing the right buttons to get your customers to press the ‘buy’ button? Well of course, we’ll start with the basics, part of our blueprint for your success is constructing a ‘task analysis’ system to find out what you want your customers to do; those findings translate into the site’s design.

Good web design is built from imagery, colour and typography

1. Bespoke IMAGERY shows your customers that you are professional, and believe in your business; it’s also a big part of your personality and branding AND good product shots – and we’re talking 3-5 here, from different angles – are invaluable in helping them make buying decisions

2. COLOUR has an emotional effect on you. It’s inescapable. Classic examples are red and black in horror movies, pastel baby products, and technology signalled by electric blues and greens or black and grey. You can read our full guide to what each colour means here. But part of your brand development is making sure that you choose the right colours to give your target audience the emotional prompt they need to buy from you.

3. And then there’s the TYPOGRAPHY. People don’t read pages and pages of info online – you never know when you’re battling against old monitors, headaches, or people who just haven’t got time to read everything you want to tell them. It provides the strongest visual cues for what’s important info. LOOK AT THIS FIRST. This bit’s less important…

And, just for the purposes of reassurance, here’s one of our clients – Matt Wilson, Chief Executive Officer at Crosby Systems – who we’ve just gone through the whole process with, telling you how well it’s worked for them:

We like Nick and the team, and the designs, creativity and innovation they bring, but the personal service they give us really adds value to what we do. In the past we’ve both employed an in-house design team, and used bigger agencies, who’re happy to take your money, but you know you’re just one of the crowd, he says. The extra time and attention we get from e-blueprint means they understand us, so they get results more quickly, which is more cost effective. It gives us the flexibility of having an out-sourced service, which is close by and attentive. We’re using that quality and resource to roll out another five to eight sites over the next six months…

So, if you want to have a chat about branding, or creating a bespoke site, you know where we are. And, in the meantime, here are our golden rules of web design.

To read more download our PDF by clicking here.

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