Banner Appearance
How the banner looks is not only presentation. Several of these settings decide whether your consent is validly obtained.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Security:
- Cookie Consent — categories, services, cookies, scans and records
The settings
- Layout and position — the shape and where it sits.
- Colour scheme and accent colour.
- Dim the page behind.
- Block the page until a choice is made.
- Show "Reject all".
- Show "Preferences".
Show "Reject all"
The single most important one. Refusing must be as easy as accepting, and a banner offering one prominent Accept and a buried Preferences link is the specific pattern regulators have ruled against repeatedly.
Leave it on. A site that makes rejection harder than acceptance has not obtained valid consent, whatever the record says.
Make the two buttons equal
Same size, same prominence, same visual weight. A grey Reject beside a bright Accept is the same dark pattern in a different form, and the accent colour setting is where that goes wrong.
Preferences should be offered
Granular choice between categories is what makes consent specific rather than all-or-nothing. Hiding it pushes people to accept everything, which is the point of hiding it and the reason not to.
Blocking the page is a strong choice
It forces a decision, which improves your consent rate and worsens the experience. It is also close to the line where consent stops being freely given.
Where the content is genuinely public information, blocking it behind a consent wall is hard to justify.
Dimming is the gentler version
It draws attention without preventing use. For most sites this is the right balance.
Position matters on phones
A banner covering the whole screen on a small device, with buttons below the fold, is one people dismiss without reading. Check the banner on a phone specifically.
Write the text for a reader
The banner texts are held separately and per language. Say plainly what you set and why, in a sentence, rather than reproducing a legal paragraph nobody reads.
The colour scheme should be legible, not on-brand
Contrast between the text and the background matters more than matching your palette. A banner people cannot read is one they dismiss.
Worked example
A site shows Accept and Reject as equally weighted buttons with Preferences alongside, dims the page rather than blocking it, and was adjusted after a phone check showed the buttons falling below the fold. The text is one sentence in each supported language.
Recommendations
- Always show "Reject all", weighted equally with Accept.
- Offer preferences rather than all-or-nothing.
- Dim rather than block unless you have a reason.
- Check the banner on a phone.