ECO-St

Project Title: ECO-St website and online calculator

Client Overview

ECO-St was set up to encourage people to make changes to their everyday life, in order to make a combined difference to the climate.

The site needed a clean, eco-friendly feel with clear navigation and a variety of prompts to lead users to important sections of the site.

ECO-St’s first shop opened in Oxfordshire in May 2007 with the aim of opening another 99 nationally over the next 3 years.

Requirements

ECO-St required a secure web presence which relayed their ethos and offered tips, ideas and inspiration for becoming more eco-friendly. It also needed to include a back-end database for an online bulb calculator.

www.eco-st.com aimed to demonstrate ECO-St’s services, attract future customers and communicate up-to-date, relevant information.

Issues

The growing number of eco-friendly sites meant ECO-St. needed to stand out and say something different. This could be done through a combination of design, content and user appeal.

The online bulb calculator needed to collate a lot of information and display accurate results while still retaining a user-friendly approach.

Solution

The overarching aim was to promote eco-friendly living, encouraging new ways to save the environment and demonstrate its accessibility to all.

The site focussed on introducing the ECO-St brand, its ethos and beliefs as well as providing an interactive element where users could
- Find eco-friendly information specific to their residence
- Access support & advice on lifestyle changes, at a level that suited them
- Calculate their carbon emissions

A key component within the site was its household lightbulb audit. By entering bulb usage, wattage and fitting type the user can quickly see energy saving equivalents to their current bulb and cost savings over the year – as well as the CO2 emissions saved.

The interactive element, tailored to their specific situation gave users a reason to return - relevant, user-centric information. Users could also save their results and access them in an ECO-St shop, where they can purchase the goods too.

Continuing with the interactive element, users could experience more of the ECO-St feel through radio interviews and video footage on the site. 

Details

ECO-St approached MDB with an idea and a concept. The website was used to launch this new approach along with the new brand.

www.eco-st.com aimed to act as a springboard for the ECO-St brand, encouraging visitors to its chain of shops, users to interact with the site and over all changes to be made to individual lives.

Benefits

• Helps ECO-St raise the overall awareness of eco-friendly living
• Encourages people to act by providing an interactive calculator with user-specific results
• ECO-St brand development in line with the ethos of the shop
• Promotes the Oxfordshire shop by encouraging visitors to its premises
• Variety of multimedia elements improves accessibility

Website: http://www.eco-st.com