Creating a secure brand.

Have you ever wondered if entering your data on a website is secure? Nowadays the cyber security topic is much more discussed than it was a few years back. But at the same time people are ready to exchange any kind of personal data for the sake of using an online service. So how important really is for users to see that a website is secured?

Some history

Remember the “golden padlock” at the bottom of older browsers? Yes, the one that showed us that a website is encrypted through an ssl certificate. Nowadays there are so many different ways of displaying that a website is trustworthy and still not many companies in the utilise these techniques. The problem lies in the number of users that drop off from your shopping cart or checkout page, because they lack the confidence, the trust to take the final step.  These are user that you have already “invested in” and that went straight to the competition…

This is more or less how my sales statement would begin. Yes, about 7-8 years ago I briefly entered into the world of sales. Trying to convince small to large businesses to purchase SSL certificates through cold calling. No need to mention my career as a salesperson did not catch on.

Instead, as a designer for a design agency called Webstart, I moved on to actually designing an e-commerce website that was set up to sell SSL certificates mostly on the Bulgarian market, but believe it may have expanded since then. I was tasked with creating not only the site but the logo and brand identity as well. I had all the creative freedom a young designer can ask for and was working with our web developer on it. He was also building a custom CMS in parallel.

The logo & brand identity

I wanted the logo to be minimalistic and stylish, but at the same time wanted to create a sense of urgency and need (yes, you need an SSL certificate. ASAP). Therefore the use of red and black. I also tried to keep it simple and not overcomplicate it. After all, the slogan was “simply secured”.

I also had to work on the business cards and other marketing materials. Communicating with print shops and getting files ready for print. A challenge every designer has faced in their career, but surprisingly something I found quite enjoyable.

The site

GetSSL is not an ordinary website. We knew we had to go the extra mile to gain users’ trust as this was a very unknown topic in the Bulgarian market space. We did research in cooperation with a data analytics company that showed us that there is a potential of up to 20% increase in signups if we managed to better present our security terms. We were curious to understand: why is it such a high percentage, how are users thinking, what did they feel about security? We knew one thing,  had to carry the “trustworthy” message throughout the whole player experience on GetSSL.

We started off by changing our own SSL certificate with an EV (Extended Validation) SSL that can verify the physical entity/company that stands behind this website. No more threat of phishing and we made sure our users knew about it. We placed the “Trust Seal” on GetSSL throughout the site as well.

With the UI, I really wanted us to carry on the brand as much as possible, but also wanted each of the certificates to have their own identity to an extent.

We also wanted to add in minimum, but valuable information about the products and create a relatively quick shopping experience despite the requirements the users had to cover when purchasing a certificate and proving their identity.

Looking back…

It is obvious now that this site was done by a very young team, but I am proud to say that 6-7 years later, carrying on the same design as then, it is live and doing the job it was meant to do.

I look at it and see so many things wrong with it, that with the experience I have now, I would change. It does have a special place in my heart as the first bigger project I worked on. Good luck to my friends @ Get SSL!