Member Blog

We’ve all been there when surfing the web and you stumble upon a website that makes you feel a little uncomfortable. Especially now conspiracy theorists are having a field day about targeted ads, cookie data and GDPR breaches we have experienced over the past decade, cybertrust is a contentious topic. It’s no wonder we might feel uneasy about the online world. Especially because most users don’t know very much about it. The internet is a complex environment that the majority of us probably care not to think about too much. As long as we can get our online next day delivery and stream our favourite shows, we’re good. 

But why do we trust some websites more than others? It works in a similar way to first impressions of people. It’s no secret that as humans we tend to judge things by how they look. In real day to day life it is normal for humans to question something or someone that doesn’t follow a certain expected behaviour or aesthetic. We like to feel as though we know what’s going on, and it’s no different when we enter the parallel world of the wide web. We want to feel like we trust the site we are browsing.

Here are just a couple of hints to ensure your website is considered trustworthy.

Clean upfront design 

If you were walking down a street lined with cafes you’re probably most likely to enter the one that looks clean, professional and well established. If you’re in a hurry to find that next cup of joe you may ignore the appearance, and go straight into order. You might get in the door, however take one swift look around at the cluttered tables, drab colours and confusing menu, and turn around without spending a penny. It’s the same with a website.

A user isn’t likely to stay on a website for more than a couple seconds if it doesn’t immediately look inviting. Do the colours match the intent? Is there plenty of ‘white space’ giving room for key messages and click points? Is the imagery of good quality and relevant? If the answer to these is no, then it sounds like you’re looking at a poor quality website… with a poor quality business behind it? Not necessarily, but remember your website is your first point of contact in the digital world – so make sure it’s a good one.

Accreditations

For health or care services in particular, affiliations or accreditations really matter. Think about the last time you seeked a self diagnosis online… A user is far more likely to trust websites that are endorsed by a recognisable organisation, like the NHS for example. If your online business, product, or blog is supported by a large & trusted organisation, people will have more confidence believing in you too. 

Imagery 

As briefly mentioned above, images are a crucial part to get right when it comes to keeping people’s attention. We are, first and foremost, a visual culture. So images that are clear, engaging and unique to your website are a sure way to gain trust from your audience. It’s also important to ensure that your images are fit for purpose. Say you owned a company that refurbished vintage watches. You’d want to reflect that directly through sharp, modern, real life photography to not only show the quality of what you do, but the credibility of your brand. 

No Spam!

Ads, pop ups, and spammy language in the copy is a sure way to put someone off looking at your website. Why? Mainly because it’s annoying and irrelevant to the user’s journey. We could probably all recall landing on a website that almost looks like an arcade. With so much going on how could anyone be expected to give it the time of day. 

Pushy Sign Ups

Another culprit that causes suspicion. Let users come to their own conclusion that they want to sign up for something. This can be done far more genuinely…by actually giving your audience something they want to invest their time in. There is nothing more off putting than being too eager. Humans hate that. 

When you work in digital marketing, these tropes become increasingly irritating and obvious as bad practice. But even to an untrained eye these qualities are a quick way to send a user away from your site. In industry this is called a ‘bounce rate.’ If your website has a high bounce rate you might want to consider a reskin!

For many it can be a daunting step to take in starting your cyber security journey when the realisation comes that you need to do more to protect your business, teams and customers from the ever growing risks associated with cyber-attacks.  And herein lies an ongoing challenge; many businesses know they need to do something so will often focus on ensuring they have some technical solutions in place such as firewalls, anti-virus software and multi-factor authentication, however this is far from the whole story when it comes to protecting any business.

Quoting directly from the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021 published by the Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport “this…survey continues to show that cyber security breaches are a serious threat to all types of businesses and charities”, going on to say “a sizeable number of organisations that identify breaches report a specific negative outcome or impact.  On average, for those that do, the costs are substantial”. 

Once a business becomes aware that it needs to take action to strengthen its cyber security there may be an initial panic regarding how to go about doing this, but with a pragmatic risk based approach you will feel less overwhelmed and more in control of what you need to do.  Starting your cyber security journey doesn’t need to be something you do in isolation.  When businesses work with CyberScale they will typically, within the first year, go through a journey that will encompass much if not all of the following work:

Cyber Security Assessment & Roadmap – looking at where you are today, and what the steps will look like for your business to get you where you both want and need to be, the assessment process will lead in to the development of the Roadmap which will take in to account the risk profile of your business and will enable you to prioritise and plan all required actions.

Cyber Security Strategy – following on from the initial assessment and putting in place a clear roadmap, ensuring that you have a Cyber Security Strategy developed and embedded in to your business is the next step.  Within your strategy not only will there be a clear plan on delivering the Roadmap, we will also be looking at your security Policies, your approach to Incident Response Planning and how you are engaging your staff with Training and Awareness activities.

Implementing your plan is a process unique to your business and will often require some oversight and assistance from our team, which is when clients tend to engage with our vCISO service.  Delivering the strategy and ensuring that all elements are embedded within the business cannot be where all your hard work so far falls down.

At this point in your journey it may feel like you have achieved all you need to, and you will have indeed achieved a lot, but the fight isn’t over.  Cyber threats are constantly changing, with new challenges for even the most security-conscious organisations being realised daily.

By acknowledging that standing still is not an option and that Security is an iterative process, you will always be reviewing, changing and learning your approach to cybersecurity.  At this point in your journey we can continue to work with you to ensure you have a process of continuous improvement in place and are always working towards embedding a culture of security throughout your business, working together to guide your Cyber Security Strategy in conjunction with Leadership teams to take the business forward, securely.

What underpins our approach is our belief that effective cyber and information security requires a strategy built around your individual business going beyond technical solutions, you can hear more of our thoughts on this in some other articles on the need for a strategy and guidance for business owners.

“Supporting your employees getting vaccinated comes with several benefits.

Having the COVID-19 vaccine means:

✅your employees can better protect themselves and those around them

✅lower risk of your employees catching and spreading COVID-19 to colleagues, therefore reducing the negative impact on your workforce

✅protecting your customers when using your services

✅bringing your staff back safely into the workplace sooner

All those aged 18 and over can book their vaccination through the NHS booking service. You can also call 119 free of charge, anytime between 7am and 11pm seven days a week. You can book via the NHS” here: https://bit.ly/3yjZlNW

Foreign currency can be a precarious topic. When seeing the words “FX”, it can set off alarm bells that someone is trying to convince you to speculate, gamble, or to pay them to teach you how to speculate and gamble.

FX trading is one thing, whilst managing currency as a business is something entirely different. The truth is that currency fluctuations can be deadly to any business, and so can currency without any fluctuations.

Avoiding bad exchange margins

There are two ways currency can hurt a business. Firstly, the buying and selling of currency itself. Now, you may not think of yourself as someone who regularly buys and sells currency, but if you’re dealing with international clients and/or customers, then you most likely will be. 

This is because when you’re selling something to a customer overseas, one of you must exchange currency in order for the transaction to happen. Often, it’s abstracted, like on Amazon. This means the customer only sees their domestic currency, and the seller only sees their own too. 

The reality behind the scenes is that Amazon (among other marketplaces) are reconciling and exchanging these currencies at a very poor rate, which is directly taken out of the seller’s revenue. 

Often, this is around 3% lost to margins. This may be thousands per year lost in revenue, which can make an even larger dent in gross profit margins. Businesses often get stung the other way around too, when purchasing supplies or SaaS in foreign currency. If it’s not the marketplace intermediary ripping you off, it’s the high street banks, as many still charge terrible ~3% margins too.

The best way to mitigate exploitative margins is to take control over the exchange. To take control over it is to receive money into a virtual wallet in a multi-currency account, and exchange on your own terms.

There are over 40 business foreign exchange options to choose from when picking a multi-currency wallet. These will exchange at margins between 0% and 1% usually, with no extra fees (or if they have fees, they usually have no significant margin).

Many of these exchange companies are fintechs with a great understanding on the laws surrounding virtual wallets, and use this in their favour to let users create what is essentially a bank account (though it may not be technically), with bank account details for receiving money into, in often ~30 currencies (though some deal with over 100 currencies).

Avoiding currency fluctuation

The second way currency hurts business is that the market prices fluctuate wildly. Even when volatility is forecasted to be low (which it isn’t), small movements in the price can make your raw materials and products much more expensive.

A British firm putting in a large order with a US supplier, for example, could result in the goods being a lot more expensive than agreed. For example, agreeing to pay $10,000, but you’ll pay 30 days after the invoice as agreed, may mean paying £8,000 instead of today’s £7,227 because there was a price fluctuation. 

War, commodity prices, business confidence, pure speculation and momentum, among thousands of other factors causes prices to fluctuate. The amount of volatility is hard to predict, let alone the direction of the price. Thus, this is the opposite to speculation, this is about insurance.

To insure and protect from these events happening, we can purchase hedging products through the same foreign exchange brokers as mentioned above. Though, only some will be suitable, as others focus on multi-currency wallets only, and neglect hedging.

We can see the spot rate for GBP/USD going from 1.16 on March 20th to over 1.30 at the end of July. Or worse, two weeks before it was 1.16 in March, it was 1.30. This could be a matter of losing out on thousands of pounds if an order was placed during this time, or if goods were sold during this two week period.

The price direction doesn’t matter in many cases, and it’s simply being unable to predict your costs and revenue accurately in the future that is worrisome. It makes cash flow forecasting difficult, along with managing liabilities and risk.

Small business international payments should be set in stone upon being agreed, and hedging products do this in a few ways. Firstly, a Forward Contract is a way to agree on the purchasing of a specific amount of foreign currency, at a definitive price, but for a date in the future. 

So, in the previous example of buying the $10,000 worth of supplies, we could lock in the purchasing of this dollar amount at the price of £7,298 (plus a small fee, which is the cost of this “insurance”), and thus our forecasts and purchases are definite. We can also use this business foreign exchange hedging method with revenue too, where we preemptively purchase foreign currency back into our domestic currency, collect the revenue in foreign wallets, then exchange back when the forward contract is to be executed.

Two potential issues can arise from this, though. Firstly, currency may fluctuate in a way that’s favourable to you, and the hedging contract is now a bad deal. Secondly, revenue may be delayed, and the firm may not yet have that foreign currency that they wish to exchange – which could be a major problem.

To solve these issues, foreign exchange companies sometimes offer Option Contracts. These are similar to Forwards, but instead afford the option of executing the exchange to the business. Thus, we can simply decline the exchange if it isn’t a good set of circumstances when the agreed date comes round. Businesses will lose this small fee, but this is worthwhile in many cases, as the alternative could be losing thousands.

Foreign exchange costs are something many small firms forget to factor in. But the reality is that business fx is no more difficult than individual use cases, such as an expat using TransferWise to exchange their pension money. Small businesses do not need to be experts at FX, and they certainly don’t need to predict price fluctuations.

For small businesses that are unconfident in hedging, and would like extra advice, many of the foreign exchange companies have a dedicated dealer. These dealers will be there to offer free advice, facilitate deals, and nudge firms in the right direction. For example, they may challenge your assumptions, such as exchanging when it’s not actually necessary because if you wait, you may get a better price due to a larger transaction amount.

Though, for those who are confident, and simply wish for speed and convenience, there are apps in which FX transactions can happen in a split second at the click of a button.

A recent BBC article reported that Facebook has been accused of rolling sexist job advertising.

Investigative campaigners, Global Witness, have brought a startling bias to light, claiming that Facebook’s advertising strategy has a considerably sexist approach. The organization had created 4 test adverts to put Facebook under scrutiny, which lead to uncovering a huge discriminatory gender bias.

The ads that ran were for 4 job advertisements, linking to genuine vacancies posted by recruitment company indeed.com. The roles were for nursery nurses, pilots, mechanics and psychologists. It’s critical to note that Global Witness did not manually enter any targeting strategy, it was left entirely to Facebook who use an automated algorithm that shows your ads to ‘who is most likely to click on them’. When creating your advertisement via Facebook, they require advertisers to confirm that they ‘will not discriminate when posting job ads’ however ‘it’s own ad delivery system appears to operate in a discriminatory manner’. (Global Witness)

And here are the findings to prove it:

• 96% of the people shown the ad for mechanic jobs were men;

• 95% of those shown the ad for nursery nurse jobs were women;

• 75% of those shown the ad for pilot jobs were men;

• 77% of those shown the ad for psychologist jobs were women

(Data collected directly from

Image credit – Chamber Canva Pro 2023

“Britain’s Court of Appeal confirmed…that riders for food delivery firm Deliveroo were self-employed, dismissing a union appeal against past judgments on their status.”

This was because they did not have to provide personal service; they could send someone in their place to do their job.

Read more here: https://reut.rs/38h9u3C

There can’t be many people whose jobs haven’t been affected by the pandemic – whether that’s newly working from home, being furloughed or even losing a position permanently. But it’s had a particular impact on women, with their job losses outpacing men’s significantly in 2020. So why have they been so hard hit, and what can employers do to try to put things right?

Despite huge advances in gender equality in the workplace, it’s safe to say that women have always shouldered the bulk of unpaid care work at home. And this has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. School closures have meant parents who work have had to cope with the added strain of childcare and home-schooling, with a lot of the responsibility falling disproportionately on women. Add to this the fact that a lot of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic are female dominated (e.g. retail, creative industries and hospitality), and the fallout is likely to have an extremely detrimental affect on women’s career progression for years to come. In fact, it might be years before we completely understand the long-term effects of all this. But we’re already seeing how women are suffering.

What’s happened to women in the workplace?

Deloitte recently carried out a global survey which found 70% of women who have experienced disruption to their routines because of the pandemic believe this will slow down the career progression. PwC’s Women in Work Index (which reports on gender parity in the workplace) has previously always shown good progress being made – but in their Women in Work 2021 report, they said they expect the value of the index to fall back to 2017 levels.

A lot of this is down to women juggling extra responsibilities at home while still working – something which is negatively affecting their work/life balance and their mental and physical health. As well as this, unfortunately, it’s still the case that most senior decision-makers are men. So they might not be aware of the types of problems women have had to deal with during the pandemic. This poses a real threat to gender equality in the workplace. It’s not just about parents either – women without caregiving responsibilities at home are struggling due to the need to be ‘always on’, whatever the time of day or night. It’s taking a real toll on their well-being.

All of this is likely to lead to more women leaving the workforce permanently – something which could irretrievably damage gender equality, and also have a huge economic effect.

The problems in detail

1. Women’s performance is being negatively affected

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) recently released a briefing note about how mothers and fathers have been balancing work and family under lockdown. One of its key findings is that women have been spending less time on paid work and more on household responsibilities. And that the time they do spend on paid work is more likely to be interrupted by things going on in their households (according to the briefing note, before the pandemic mothers and fathers used to be interrupted during the same proportion of their work hours; now women are interrupted over 50% more often). This is of course going to affect their abilities to do their jobs. And it could then lead to them missing out on promotions, bonuses or pay rises, and slow down their career progression.

1. More women than men are working flexibly

According to the Deloitte survey, more than a third of women are now working from home full-time, compared to 1% before the pandemic. Obviously agile working like this does have several positive effects, like fewer interruptions and less time off sick or on holiday. But with more women having to apply for flexible working than men, it could lead to male-dominated workplaces –  a real step backwards. Women who work away also often don’t get the support or mentoring that being in the office regularly can bring – something else that can put a real dent in their career progression.

1. The gender-pay gap

A survey of women working in corporate jobs in the US showed that more than a quarter are considering reducing their working hours or leaving the workforce for good as a result of the pandemic. This will mean even less women in leadership roles, further increasing the gender-pay gap.

In recent years many companies have put great initiatives in place to try to tackle gender inequality at work. But it’s likely they’ll need to put these on hold while they recover from the financial effects of the pandemic which is another worrying development.

What’s the answer?

With no clear end to the pandemic in sight, it’s clear that employers are going to have to make positive changes in the next few years to help women continue to advance in the workplace.

So what can employers do to help to lessen the effect of the pandemic on their female staff? Deloitte have come up with six steps that organisations can put in place now to support their workers both during and after the pandemic.

• Make flexible working the norm: this doesn’t just apply to working parents – it needs to be available to all workers. And it also doesn’t just mean working from home (although that is part of it) – it’s about making sure that people’s working arrangements give them the best possible work/life balance while still benefitting the business. Workplace cultures must support people who take advantage of this for whatever reason – whether that’s down to caregiving responsibilities at home or something else – without penalising them.
• Lead with empathy and trust: leaders and managers must have open and supportive conversations to build trust with their teams and promote an empathetic culture – so they can understand any problems or constraints their employees are facing.
• Promote networking, mentorship and sponsorship: these types of resources can be a real boost to career progression. But they must be offered in a variety of ways so women don’t feel excluded from them (for example by only offering early morning networking breakfasts that clash with responsibilities at home).
• Create learning opportunities that fit with employees’ daily lives: most women want to progress their careers. But the usual ways to do this (e.g. professional development courses) often don’t work for people with a lot of responsibilities outside of work. So employers need to find creative ways to allow their staff to get the expertise and support they need in flexible ways (e.g. tailored online learning that they can do at their own pace).
• Remove unconscious bias in reward and promotion processes: unconscious bias due to people’s backgrounds or gender is something that lots of organisations have been working hard to address. But the pandemic means employers also need to factor in bias towards women who want to work remotely because of unavoidable commitments at home, especially as these relate to caregiving responsibilities.
• Make diversity, respect and inclusion non-negotiable: 30% of women in the Deloitte survey said they’ve experienced non-inclusive behaviour (like being excluded from meetings or projects) at work. And this is a big reason for them not wanting to progress within an organisation. It’s not enough just to have a diversity and inclusion policy in place either – employers need to address problems like this head on to make sure people are living the right values at work. All day, every day.

What we’re doing at Pure

We’ve run our Women’s Leadership Programme for some time now for women who want to boost their confidence at work, develop their leadership skills and build a new network. But we’re changing things up for 2022 to play our part in alleviating some of the extra pressure on women caused by the pandemic. So we’re making it more accessible than ever before. We’ll be delivering it using a mixture of remote learning and face-to-face meetings, spread over a number of days. All to give working women access to as wide a support network as possible.

Since 2014 over 100 women have taken part in the programme. And 26% of them have later been promoted. If you think it could make a difference to your working life, or know someone else who could benefit, head to the programme’s website to find out more.

In times of difficulty, think outside the box.

Now may not seem a good time to think about increasing (or starting) exports from UK to other countries.  Brexit has slowed development of sales to Europe and Covid has affected our development of sales here and further afield.  

Surely, all countries are in the same boat?  Yes, but some are further ahead in recovery than the UK – perhaps because their problems started earlier, or because they were not hit as hard.  Although opportunities for sales growth are temporarily constrained for the UK, this doesn’t mean there are no opportunities – one answer is to look abroad

With Coronavirus, Far Eastern countries were hit first, and often hardest.  However, this also means they are now among the first to recover.  My experience of the Far East, especially of China, suggests opportunities are increasing there by the day.  The signs are that they are recovering rapidly – much faster than western markets”

Taking China as an example, fast recovery, alone, is attractive to Western exporters. However, there are extra advantages which UK companies are particularly well-placed to grasp.

1. There is a large and concentrated population within China of high-income consumers who favour Western foods, particularly those foods regarded as luxury or special items. These are the very items which they are, now, temporarily, denied

1. High-income consumers in China are concentrated in a few areas associated with points of import (mostly seaports).  Even though these are relatively tew, the populations of their catchment areas are huge.  
2. Chinese consumers favouring western foods are concentrated in the better developed cities and provinces, with better access to imported goods

1. British products are seen as desirable among Chinese consumers as they are associated with our history and culture – seen as attractive.

Sinofoods was founded by a UK food professional with over 25 years’ experience in China (as a long-term resident) preceded by a similar period in food manufacturing and technology in the UK. Associated with food and regulatory experts within China and SE Asia, we are well positioned to help western companies to succeed in China.

For many food products, import into China is simple.  However, there are many, often minor, differences in regulations between the two markets which seem to present impenetrable barriers.  Most of these are simply based on a lack of understanding of each other’s food cultures and, therefore, regulations.

Before embarking upon a ‘Chinese adventure’ it is essential that any obstacles or roadblocks are identified in advance; with many products there will only be one chance to get it right!  At Sino Food we specialise in advising companies through the various phases of product design, manufacture, labelling and import.  Once this part is correct and the product is right for the China market, we can also, if required, help with the importing, customs issues, etc. through partner organisations based in China.

For an initial, no commitment discussion of the opportunities for your company, or for more information on the way forward, please contact me at peter@sinofoodregs.co.uk

Huxley Events & The Crime Lab team up to create the next 30 Minute “LunchBreak Live” Session on “Is Your Boss A Psychopath”!

Is Your Boss A Psychopath? A question I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves, well now is your chance, in this fantastic 30 minute session to explore;

• What is a psychopath?
• Do you know a psychopath?
• Do you have psychopathic tendencies?
• Take the interactive psychopath test!
• Concluding with…Is your boss a psychopath?

The Event: Friday 27th August 2021 12:30-1:00pm BST Zoom Event Only £8 per ticket

Book Your Tickets Here: https://bit.ly/3CX5KCt

About LunchBreak Live We know your time is precious and you don’t always have time for “fun things” especially during the working day!

LunchBreak Live are quick, interesting 30 minute talks on a variety of fun, light-hearted topics, focusing on psychology and true crime. Think “Is Your Boss a Psychopath”, “Offender Profiling” and “Murky World of Psychopaths” (and much more).

The Presenter The experience will be delivered by Steve Gaskin a former Murder Squad Detective Chief Inspector at New Scotland Yard. He is also an adviser to BBC Silent Witness and a forensic psychologist.

Duration: 30 minutes How It Runs: You will receive a link to follow online to, ready for the video call. We use the online platform “Zoom” to deliver our experiences. You will be able to see and hear Steve during his talk. There will also be the opportunity to post questions (and time dependant, Steve may be able to answer these). Recommendations This is the perfect experience to share with friends or colleagues! Make sure you invite your friends and family to purchase a ticket as well! This is an online masterclass, and you will not be required to attend a venue.

Huxley Events & The Crime Lab offer Private Corporate Talks, Team Building & Experiences. To find out more, contact the team at team@huxleyevents.com or visit www.huxleyevents.com (or for ticketed events visit www.thecrimelab.co.uk)

Book Your Tickets Here & Find Out More: https://bit.ly/3CX5KCt

The phrase ‘your money your life’ (YMYL) has become increasingly important in the world of Google and search engine optimisation (SEO). The phrase relates to topics and subject areas online which as you might imagine, have the potential to affect people’s money and their lives more broadly.

There are a wide range of topics which are encompassed within the YMYL sphere which include (but are certainly not limited to):

• Loans and personal finance
• Health and healthcare
• Insurance
• Online gambling, bingo and casinos
• Some areas relating to mental health

There are also various areas which fall into the remit of YMYL as they may even indirectly affect those specific areas of a person’s life.

For example, when it comes to things like brain injury solicitors and compensation claims, although not necessarily within the above remit of YMYL, it can still affect a person in the same way as those mentioned, should something untoward, or ‘less than kosher’ occur, in a way that various other areas cannot do.

What Are the Implications of YMYL?

Although in the case of any industry online, the likes of Google and other search engines and social media platforms take strict stances, such are the potential ramifications, YMYL is a specific area of focus for Google.

In past years, unscrupulous people have exploited loopholes in Google and other platforms’ algorithms and have been able to market shady products to unsuspecting customers.

In the case of loans and personal finance, in the early days of payday loans in the UK, there were providers who were in essence, no more than loan sharks, that managed to rank online and offer potentially desperate customers appealing offers, only to later on exploit and overcharge them.

Thus, in the case of Google, they have openly admitted to developing specific features within their rankings and algorithm, to judge and assess topics and areas within YMYL in their own right. This means that as far as possible, only honest and true experts in potentially very impactful areas can rank, while those who may try and ‘chance’ ranking in areas of high repercussions, will find it much more difficult.

YMYL and Advice

More than a few people each day use ‘Doctor Google’ to try and understand and diagnose conditions. Although there are reputable providers of such information online, like the NHS in the UK and the FDA in the USA, there have in the past been unscrupulous people who have tried to exploit the need for knowledge and health information for unsavoury means.

Thus, when it comes to information, much like it does for products and services, the YMYL algorithm and terms and conditions will also apply, with users and honest people browsing in mind.

A website’s design is very much influenced by the industry it is situated in. For example, you wouldn’t expect to see a floral design on a law firm’s website, nor a clean, minimalist design for a kids entertainment site. 

But why is this? 

To understand why certain styles and designs are better suited to specific industries, we have included some of our favourite examples where this is abundantly clear. Let’s delve deeper into these designs and the decisions made behind them. 

Wagg & Purr

We recently designed and built Wagg & Purr’s first website, behaviour specialists dedicated to providing expert cat and dog training in Norwich, Norfolk. Wagg & Purr’s goals and core values focus on a fun, friendly approach to training and this is what we were tasked with communicating via their website.

Enter the illustrative approach we took for Wagg & Purr. Originally we were using imagery for the visual elements, but after finalising the speech mark inspired logo, it felt right to keep this consistency throughout the website. 

A big part of Wagg & Purr’s personality is their love for animals, including their love for their own pet. To highlight this, we used Lauren’s – director of Wagg & Purr – own beloved companion, Poppy, as the face of the website. Many pet owners connect with each other over their four-legged friends, by featuring Poppy and other pets across the website, users are able to resonate with Lauren and these personable touches. The target audience is looking for someone who will take a gentle approach with their pets and who cares about their well being just as much as they do.

We always carry out background research and work closely with our clients before beginning the design of a website. Not only to correctly present the business online, but to also help users find the type of business they’re looking for to help with their search. 

Rockthorn

On the other end of the scale, we have Rockthorn who provide quality plant hire throughout the UK. Due to the scale of their target audience, it’s crucial that Rockthorn’s website is clear, displays their key plant hire equipment, and is easy to look through. 

Balancing what users in this industry need and what the company can provide was our biggest challenge here. For Rockthorn, we planned and designed an option which offers all the functionality of an e-commerce website, with the ability to add the equipment a user needs to their basket, select their desired dates and submit a quote request as opposed to purchasing then and there. This allows Rockthorn to contact the customer and form a more personable and long term relationship with their clientele. 

The design uses lots of square blocks and two bold colours to ensure absolute clarity for a user landing on the site. The majority of users won’t be too invested in illustrations or imagery of the company, the importance here is that users can easily find the equipment they need and get in touch with Rockthorn to hire them out, a trusted supplier of plant hire. 

Bluespace

As creative office designers, Bluespace needed a striking website which showcases their talented and innovative commercial designs. The opening sequence upon entry to the site is purposely delayed, to allow the user to take in the visual aspects of the website. This website is certainly an indulgent one, and rightly so, portraying their high end, luxurious office designs. Bluespace create bespoke designs and required a bespoke website to mirror that. 

The most popular section on the website is the case studies, and to no surprise, people want to see examples of the work they’re capable of before deciding if they’re the commercial interior designers for them. Because of this, we feature their most recent case studies on the homepage and these consistently pop up throughout the website. With delayed loads and animations throughout, the user quickly becomes familiar with Bluespace’s dynamic designs. 

CORE Technology 

We’ve recently had the pleasure of designing and building the website for CORE Technology who provide high quality security systems, automated living solutions and commercial technology installations… unsurprisingly, a fast moving and innovative industry, which would be no exception for the website.

For this design, we knew we needed to set the standard in the industry and decided to use the website to reflect the innovation standard of CORE Technology, and we think we got it spot on. With features such as the interactive cursor, parallax scroll and animated transitions, we quite literally needed to add an extra dimension to showcase the capabilities of this company.

Why is an industry relevant design important?

A design should be tailored to the desired audience and depending on your industry, this is unique to each one. Websites continually evolve over the years, as do user expectations, you need to ensure your website provides an experience bespoke to your industry and users which keeps up with this. 

As a business, optimising your website to fit in with the aims of your target audience is a sure way to raise conversions, put you one step ahead of your competition, and create a level of trust with users that you know what you’re doing. Putting across your unique selling points and incorporating a design that supports these is key to winning over your target audience. 

Here at Nu Image we can help and love nothing more than the feeling of creating a website that fully captures the personality of your company. We give our all and are always looking for a new challenge. If you need a bespoke website for your business then get in touch with us today on 01603 859007 to see how we can help you.

With lots of everyday services moving online, from healthcare to shopping, access to technology is becoming vital to our day to day lives. But some in society face major challenges when trying to access the world online.

In the UK it’s estimated that 16.3 million adults lack core digital skills, and 1.9 million homes have no access to the internet – meaning there is a whole section of society which needs support to ensure they can access the opportunities presented by the digital world.

The digital divide has always existed but has become more evident in the last year as the Covid-19 pandemic forced big parts of our lives – including work, school, and socialising – to move online. As a result of this, now, more than ever, work is being done to tackle the issue. In order to bridge the divide, people need access to three key things: equipment, connectivity and skills.

Currently, charities up and down the country are working to ensure everyone has access to technology. CityFibre has worked to support this, partnering with charities including The Hive, a digital library which loans equipment to those that need it, and Donate Digital, which upgrades and redistributes donated equipment.

A device is just the beginning – a reliable internet connection is vital to accessing online services. CityFibre is investing up to £4 billion to bring the best connectivity – Full Fibre – within reach of up to eight million homes, 800,000 businesses and 400,000 public sector sites.

Working with councils and housing associations across the UK, including here in Norwich our whole city approach ensures that everyone has the same opportunity to access the network.

We are also working to ensure that people have the skills and confidence to use technology. CityFibre has supported various charities across the UK who work with the over 55s to help them develop the skills they need to get online. We are also supporting the next generation, working with coding workshops to help young people and their families develop technology skills.

Our Full Fibre networks also support the development of skills, as a reliable and fast connection ensures that people have a good experience online, encouraging them to explore technology and make full use of the opportunities it brings.

While the last year has made the digital divide more obvious than ever, it has also acted as a catalyst with more people working to tackle the problem both locally and nationally. There is still a lot to be done but working together we can all make a difference.

Our investment into community-wide Full Fibre networks is an important step in getting more people online, but there is lots we can do as individuals too. Don’t throw out your old technology – donate it to charity; and if you see someone struggling, support them to get online. This will make sure that as we move into a new, more digital world, no-one gets left behind.

To find out more or register an interest in the service go to cityfibre.com/east