On their stand at the Essex Winning Business Exhibition, A Recipe For Success wanted to be a little different and stand out from the crowd. So they brought a kiosk with them.

A kiosk is a very robust, hi-tech 'computer in a box'. They are often, although not exclusively, used in e-government. Councils put them in public places such as high streets, shopping centres and libraries so that anyone can have access to council services online, even if you don't have a PC at home. To make services even more accessible, the keyboard is designed so that people can use it who have never used a computer before.

Obviously putting kiosks in such public places can cause problems. With this in mind, kiosks can be made that are vandal proof, bulletproof, waterproof and almost any other 'proof' that you could think of.

One small slip up was when the kiosk was brought into the exhibition hall and one rather portly delegate thought that it was a weighing machine. It would certainly have been a good test of the kiosk's sturdiness had he stepped on it!

A Recipe For Success used City of Lincoln Council's website to show the kiosk working. This attracted visitors from many of the councils in the area, from Colchester to Thurrock, who found it easy to use and a great way to make their services more accessible.

A Recipe For Success also conducted an online survey on the kiosk to find out about visitors' websites and how they see them improving over the next year. 15% of visitors surveyed had no website at all, whilst 55% had a basic brochure ware site. Well done to the 30% who are using sophisticated sites to expand their business. By next year, 70% hope to have advanced sites, while 10% claim that they still won't have a website.

A question asking people their website pet hates revealed that slow loading time and confusing navigation are the things they hate the most, closely followed by poor design, out of date information and a confusing ordering process.