* Update* 29/03/2012 eConsultancy post on changes they’ve made to their own site and links to useful resources here.

In principle the regulations are right but how practical are they?  Remember back to when 3D Secure came about, originally this was seen as an inhibitor to online shopping but is now seen as a necessary evil. Although, by comparison, the cookies compliancy will have a much bigger impact.

On May 26^th 2011, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 came into force.  Under the new Regulations a subscriber or user has to give consent to the use of cookies, having been given clear and comprehensive information about the purpose of them.  Under the previous law, organisations only had to inform users how they used cookies and how the user could “opt out” if they objected to their use.   The aim of the Regulations is to increase transparency for consumers.

So what do you need to know?

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Groupon made it’s first deal in late 2008 with a half-price pizza offer.  Today Goupon is offering deals in 43 countries with an estimated revenue of around $2 billion.  Andy Jones, Director of Customer Experience at Salmon takes a look at their site and gives his take on eight things he believes they do well, leading to a design that is not only compelling and visually coherent but also very persuasive.

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With the impressive returns apparent for those retailers who have optimised their web sites for access by smartphones and the inexorable rise in smartphone adoption, the debate has moved beyond the ‘why’ and ‘when’.**   The question now is ‘how to optimise your web site for mobile devices’.  Here’s a summary of the pros and cons of the main options to help you navigate your way through this key decision.

Option 1.  Building a mobile store – developing a set of pages specifically optimised for mobile devices

Pros:  Fancy something (relatively) quick to market and with easy access?  Then a mobile store could be just what you are looking for.  No snazzy touch screen smart phone needed, even if your customers have a Nokia e71 they can shop on your mobile store, plus with auto detection and re-direction, accessing your store couldn’t be simpler.

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Tesco Video

Tesco: Homeplus in South Korea offer customers a new way of shopping via their SmartPhone and QR Code technology.  It’s proving popular with customers there.  I’m not sure we have the same issues in the UK as Korea do to warrant this here, they are quite a unique market, but this does offer customers an alternative shopping method and is a great visual reminder.  See for yourself here.

Microcopy might be just a small part of the online experience but it’s vitally important to customer experience and conversion and often overlooked.

So when you are designing for the web, take a minute to stand back and think about the microcopy, as ironically the smallest bits of copy can have the biggest impact on business and be the cause of a great or ghastly online customer experience.

Microcopy refers to the little instructions and phrases used on web pages to guide and reassure customers and can make the difference between someone signing up for something, or entering their credit card details or not.

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