100 points to know about...
Eco-Design Web Development

Raising awareness about the carbon footprint of digital is a crucial issue in eco-design. As digital activities still seem virtual and intangible to many internet users, it is important to inform and make them aware of the material consequences of their digital consumption choices. In order to do so, designers need to work on pedagogical and appealing carbon-aware digital experiences. Here are five carbon-aware design principles:

Give users information on carbon intensity

Make the information on carbon intensity accessible to users. By concretely seeing the CO2 impact of their actions, users will be empowered to change their behaviour. If you know where the servers are based, you may be able to estimate the carbon intensity from the grid data and provide real-time data on the carbon intensity of your website.

Help users choose according to carbon intensity forecast

Did you know that, just as the weather report helps us plan our daily lives, carbon intensity forecast can help users organize their digital activities? There are solutions which provide actionable data, quantifying how carbon intensive electricity is on an hourly basis around the world. They indicate when digital activities rely on big data centers and times when low-carbon power sources, like wind and solar, are most plentiful. By giving this information to the users, you can help them make their digital consumption choices according to carbon intensity forecast.

Drive people into low data alternatives

You can offer low data alternatives to your « usual » content. For instance, when building BETC’s annual CSR report website, the designers assumed that illustrative photographs were too heavy and not necessarily useful as such, so they were redesigned in the form of very light drawings. Nevertheless, the users still have the possibility to view the original photo but only if they need or want to. You can refer to this principle for many of your contents: give your users the choice between a « heavy » content such as a video and a low data alternative like an audio file which can provide approximately the same information. Drive them to wonder which one would be the most relevant in their context. For example: do you need to play a video if you know you will only be listening to it? If you really want to watch the video, when will the carbon intensity be low so that you can reduce your impact?

Make the low carbon alternatives appealing and fun

Low data interactions or activities do not have to be unpleasant experiences. Try to design fun and pedagogical low data alternatives, to add playfulness and digital wellbeing in your carbon-aware experiences.

Give the user meaningful feedback

Provide feedback on behaviour change and its impact. It is important to motivate, engage and empower users, and reinforce their carbon-aware digital routine. Your experience will be even more powerful if users receive feedback with emotional or gamified affiliations.

These principle were fully inspired by « Branch », an online magazine written by and for people who dream of a sustainable and just internet for all. To go further about design for carbon-aware digital experiences, read their article « Design for carbon aware digital experiences » https://branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue-1/design-for-carbon-aware-digital-experiences/