Ethical and sustainable digital design
In a previous story on sustainable brand identity, we talked about how the brand is applied at every touch point. Some touchpoints are physical (print), which we talked about in the previous story.
Other communication products are digital: how much energy do the websites and digital content we consume consume consume? How many websites and apps have a clear functionality and effectively deliver the messages we need? What kind of behaviors do these apps and digital content promote? For these products, it is key to consider energy consumption, but also aspects such as inclusive and accessible communication and healthy digital use.
How can we design sustainable digital products?
Are digital marketing and digital products sustainable?
We may not even have considered the impact of digital marketing and the products and services we launch in digital. Isn't digital ethereal? What impacts can something that is not material have?
If we have started to dive in, we may encounter challenges such as the following:
Instead of a product, we see smoke.
We often see the digital world as something ethereal, non-material, that has no impact. But we must be aware that everything we create for a digital environment is also a product. It has its life cycle - from creation, to its final disposal when it is no longer needed. And of course, it has energy consumption and physical and material implications. It's time to move on to looking at digital creations for what they are: tangible products.
The client "doesn't ask for it" / the designer "doesn't offer it".
The impact and sustainability in the digital world is something new for many people. Therefore, we can find that the client does not ask that their website or digital product considers sustainability criteria. As we can also find that the person or agency in charge of design and development does not offer to work with these criteria. It is important that we all know the benefits of working with ethical and sustainability criteria in the digital environment. And that we learn how to put it into practice.
What about people? Sometimes they are left out of the concept of "sustainability".
We create digital products and content to provide a service to people. And people also participate in their development. If we care about sustainability, we can't just look at the environmental impact and energy consumption of the web.
Paradigm shift: a sustainable digital environment
For all our digital creations to take ethics and sustainability into account, we must start from the strategy and apply a holistic view. This is something we always emphasize.
Purpose and organizational model.
It is not difficult to understand that it does not have the same impact to create a website for a company with a social purpose, or an NGO, as it does for a harmful and polluting company. The purpose of the organization is the first thing we have to look at when creating a digital product.
After the purpose of the organization, there is the purpose of the product itself. What is the website or app going to be used for? What do you want to communicate, and why, with that digital content? Typically, if the organization has a positive impact purpose, it will be easier for the product's purpose to align with this. Purpose provides goals and context for sustainable design efforts.
Work processes.
It's not just what we do through our work. It's also how we do it.
First, we might consider the working conditions in which we create these digital products. Do they produce welfare?
Secondly, let's look at the work processes themselves. If we use agile processes(Lean), we will be optimizing our resources. Thus, we will invest less work time, which translates into money and less time for other things, but also in energy consumption.
Energy optimization.
How are our digital products powered? Digital may seem ethereal, but it consumes energy in multiple ways.
The first thing to look at here is the servers (hosting). We must host digital products and services on servers that run 100% on renewable energy. This is one of the most important things we can do to create more sustainable digital solutions.
On the other hand, digital products and content also consume energy in the devices where they are used. Cell phones, tablets, computers... all these screens consume energy. There are tricks to minimize their consumption. For example, in OLED screens, which are very common, dark colors consume much less energy than light colors. We can take this into account when creating our digital products, although we must consider other factors such as readability, accessibility, and communication objectives.
Honesty.
First, the purpose of digital products and content must be communicated honestly and clearly to all people.
Then, all the digital communication we propose must be equally honest. For example, avoid creating digital content that induces greenwashing.
On the other hand, there is the issue of data. Users must be able to know where their data is, what is done with it, and how to delete it if they wish to do so.
Robust and scenario-proof products.
What does it mean for a digital product to be robust? We are talking about maximizing its compatibility with different current and future agents, including assistive technologies. A future-proof product.
Think of all the APIs, devices and technologies that our product and content will have to interact with now or in the future. One example is keyboard navigation, commonly used by the visually impaired. Our product must adapt to these situations.
Software infrastructure.
When we talk about web or digital product, there is a whole software infrastructure that we must optimize.
On the one hand, there is the code we use to develop the product, which must be as clean as possible (fulfill the functionalities we are looking for with as little code as possible).
It is very common to use frameworks and libraries during the development of digital products. Frameworks are like an empty house: a large structure, which we then fill with content. Libraries, on the contrary, are like collections of rooms, to which we must give the structure.
Both can save product development time, but at the same time slow down the product itself. Frameworks add components that might be unnecessary (what if, out of a whole framework, we are only going to use part of it)? Libraries, on the other hand, increase HTTP requests (which consumes energy and can slow down the experience).
We must assess whether, for the project in question, the use of frameworks or libraries will be of value, and if so, which ones are the most appropriate. The same applies to plugins and additional modules: we should use as few as possible.
On the other hand, we have the CMS (Content Management System). This is the tool that allows us to create, organize, publish and delete content on your website. For those who have ever managed content in Wordpress, this is just what it is all about. CMSs also bring convenience to the tasks of creating and managing content on the web, but they can produce additional burdens on the product. We must optimize them properly and make it easy for the CMS to be maintained by whoever will be managing it - usually the client for whom the product is being developed.
Web standards.
There are some standards for the creation of digital products, which can help us in our process.
The first to be mentioned are the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). These standards have even become the norm in some cases. For example, everything that public administrations create or contribute to create, must comply with them. Without going any further, the websites that we develop with the public subsidy of the digital kit, have the WCAG as an obligation.
Later, the WSG (Web Sustainability Guidelines) appeared. These are less advanced today, but more comprehensive. They talk about how to create digital products and services that put people and the planet at the center.
Content.
It is important to optimize content so that it is accessible (WCAG compliant), inclusive, and sustainable (including environmentally). One approach that can help us is content-first: starting from the content we have to offer, to create the structure of the product. In addition, the content must be easy to find and use: this is where the UX comes in.
Optimize your impact in the digital world
Now, we present you with a challenge.
- Choose a digital product from your environment, it can be a website, an app that you normally use, or even a content plan for Instagram.
- Try to analyze it from a strategic level, what is it for? What is its purpose? Identify if its purpose could be redefined to contribute to a better impact.
- Study the energy consumption of the product, and where the energy it uses comes from. Can we use renewable and clean energy sources? Can we reduce its consumption?
- Test the product with different people. Does it have accessible communication? Does it perform its function optimally? Does it adapt to different contexts?
- Design a more ethical and sustainable alternative for this product.
You can use some tools for impact measurement. One that we often use is Ecograder, which evaluates environmental impact and other interesting aspects. Website Carbon Calculator is a very useful tool if we want to focus on energy consumption and emissions. And we can also use tools such as Analytics or A/B tests to optimize our content.
On the other hand, there are some strategies that may be helpful. For example:
- Mobile-first. By creating content with a mobile-first approach, it is easier to optimize it. Mobile screens are smaller, which will force us to focus on the most essential content.
- Progressive enhancement. Progressive enhancement is a layered approach, increasing functionality as the context allows. The context of users may be that they have a weak internet connection, or a very small screen, for example. With this approach, consider the content and basic functionalities so that they are always available (e.g., reading a paragraph of text). From there, we can add layers of experience (e.g. illustrations, animations or even sound) that only appear when appropriate.
- Responsive. Responsive design makes the content adapt effectively to the experience on different devices. Thus, the same website or digital product will not look the same on computer screens than on mobile screens.
- Open Source. We can consider the use of software and solutions that can be freely shared, used, modified, distributed and improved. This can contribute to sustainability, thanks to open and collaborative sharing of resources.
Remember that you can also use some of the tools in our methodology to help you with this. And we are always available to discuss these issues.
Let's design a more beautiful and sustainable world.
