As you might have heard, humanity has a lot on its plate recently: we are in the middle of a climate crisis, our oceans are turning into plastic landfills, animal species are going extinct by the dozens every day, and just in general we are destroying the very thing that keeps us alive, the planet. Amidst these existence-threatening circumstances, our aim should be to reduce (or rather stop) the activities that put us in this situation in the first place. We should be working on reducing resource use, energy consumption, emission of toxic chemicals, and waste creation. And yet, business goes on as usual, companies producing more stuff, extracting more fossil fuels, creating more waste day by day.

As digital designers, we have our part in this. We keep churning out new apps, websites, software, system updates, and improved user experiences, rarely stopping to reflect on the impact of our work beyond the user.

Recently the social implications of digital products have gotten some attention thanks to Mike Montiero’s Ruined by Design and The Center for Humane Tech’s The Social Dilemma, but the environmental impact of digital is much less discussed or understood, let alone taken into consideration in the design process.

But it should be! As digital designers we are in a position to influence the impact our products have on the world and I firmly believe that environmental sustainability should be at the center of our efforts.

Side note: I’m not downplaying the importance of social sustainability here, but rather want to raise awareness about environmental sustainability in digital design.

Why don’t we think about the environmental impact of digital design?

One reason could be that in the fast-paced work environment where resources (such as time and money) are always running short, we simply don’t have the capacity to think about sustainability.

Another reason could be that digital is intangible and, unlike material products, it doesn’t take up physical space, so it is hard to comprehend that it indeed has a tangible impact. It is easy to fall for the idea that digital just floats weightlessly in the cloud, not hurting anyone. But this innocent image couldn’t be further away from the truth.

How does digital design have an impact on the environment?

To understand the environmental impact of our design work we need to look beyond the product itself.

1. Hardware

Our digital products need a physical infrastructure to be stored, distributed, and used: computers, phones, servers, routers, etc. The production and disposal of the hardware components has a huge environmental impact. In 2019 we created 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste, as much as if everyone in the world would have thrown out 5 laptops. Just in one year! And as new tech innovations encourage constant upgrades in hardware, e-waste is expected to increase, to 74 million Mt by 2030.

What is the role of digital design in this? Research shows that the hardware and software upgrade cycles are closely connected. Just think about old iPhones not being able to handle new IOS updates, so people are kind of forced to get new phones if they want to have the latest updates. The general rule is that as software evolves and becomes more complex and more powerful, or simply just gets packed with overkill features and design frills, it requires better hardware. So people are buying faster, stronger machines, throwing away older, but otherwise perfectly working devices.

2. Energy

Digital products also need energy through their lifecycle: as we design them, as they are stored and as users interact with them. The rule of thumb is: the bigger the size of the file, the more energy it uses. So a website with 100 pictures will use more energy than a website with 10 pictures. A web page that auto-plays video in the header will require more energy than a webpage that uses a picture.

Data centers, aka “the cloud”, where we store most of our digital stuff are one of the most energy-intensive parts of IT.

“On average, servers and cooling systems account for the greatest shares of direct electricity use in data centers, followed by storage drives and network devices. Some of the world’s largest data centers can each contain many tens of thousands of IT devices and require more than 100 megawatts (MW) of power capacity — enough to power around 80,000 U.S. households (U.S. DOE 2020).” — Energy Innovation

So no, just because we can’t touch digital, it doesn’t mean it has no tangible impact. It requires 24/7 energy input, emitting tonnes of CO2.

3. User behaviour

Digital products also influence users’ behavior. While there are many apps and websites aiming to help users make more environmentally friendly decisions (like saving energy or using public transportation instead of a car) there are other types of digital products that promote unsustainable behavior. For example e-commerce sites nudging people to buy more than they need by recommending related products, and showing social proof. Digital designers can use persuasive technologies, nudging, and behavioral insights to influence individual behaviour for better or worse in terms of environmental impact.

Why should we think about the impact of digital design on the environment?

The above are just a few examples to illustrate the environmental impact of digital design and I have a few resources at the end of the article if you want to learn more. The bottom line is: digital design does have an environmental impact and as designers we have the responsibility to know about these impacts and strive to minimize them.

Not because sustainability is trendy, or because it can improve the image of the company, but because caring for and protecting the environment is the only way forward.

It has been said many times, but we tend to forget: we don’t have the luxury to destroy our life support system (nature), because Earth is our only home. There is no planet B to escape to when we have destroyed this one, no matter how much space company owning billionaires try to convince us otherwise.

But if I can’t convince you with altruistic reasons, here is another one: sustainability makes a good business. Sustainability measures, such as smaller file sizes, straightforward user journeys, cutting out unnecessary content, contribute to faster page load, better overall user experience, cost savings, and even reaching a wider audience. In other words, thinking about sustainability will help us design products that more people will enjoy using over and over again.

Some questions to think about

Unfortunately, sustainability is not as straightforward as just reducing picture size. At least not always. Since I’m writing my master thesis about this topic, I’ve been reading and thinking about the complexities of sustainability and UX design, and I would like to raise some questions for the design community to think about.

1. Is human-centered design sustainable?

In his book Designing for Sustainability, Tim Frick makes the point:

people-friendly = planet-friendly

He explains, if you create the most straightforward and lean user experience for your audience, you can save a lot of energy: no need to create/store unnecessary content, extra pages on the website, etc.

But then there is a flipside to this coin. What happens if this super-streamlined user flow leads to unsustainable behaviour? For example, the Amazon “Buy now” button. Most efficient for the user, they can buy anything with one click, but that is also the problem. Making shopping this easy (too easy) leads to impulse buying, mindless overconsumption and eventually increasing amount of stuff thrown into the garbage.

Tim Frick uses the human-centered design lens and argues for sustainability on a technical level (designing for reduced energy consumption), while he misses accounting for the potentially unsustainable behavioural implications.

So how do we balance this? There are already some actors out there who question the almighty superiority of human-centered design, but we need more designers thinking critically, and discussing how to integrate a wider perspective in the design process.

2. Do we need all the sensors?

Designers can help users understand their behaviour by visualizing data collected through sensors. For example, showing how much electricity one uses, and nudging them to reduce it. While this visualization can be helpful to influence individual behaviour for the better, sensors themselves have a huge negative environmental impact. Not only directly, through production and e-waste, but also indirectly through the data they collect. Gerry McGovern explains in his book, World Wide Waste, that we only use 10% of the collected data. If we do the math right, it means that 90% of the data is waste, useless, yet we store it in energy-hungry clouds, adding more and more servers to host our hundreds of zettabytes of digital trash.

We see the tension here again: from a behavioral perspective it can be beneficial to have the sensors because we can use the data to visualize behavior, but from a technical perspective these excessive amounts of sensors as well as the collected data are a burden for the planet.

3. Sustainable UX and the unsustainable business models

And finally, let’s discuss the tension between business models and sustainable UX design. For example, a company based on a linear model (take-make-waste) has the goal to sell as much as possible on its e-commerce site to get the highest possible profit. Excessive resource use in the form of unnecessary consumption is one of the main contributors to environmental problems. So buying less crap is the best thing we can do. Then the question is: how can a responsible-minded UX designer nudge users to buy less when the company’s goal is to sell more?

Let’s have a discussion!

I don’t have the answer to these questions, but I think it is important to start thinking about them (and many others) to better understand UX’s role in sustainability and its power to bring sustainable solutions within defined systems (such as the organization and the economy).

My hope is that this article will spark a discussion, raise awareness about the importance and complexity of sustainability in UX, and maybe even get you, dear designers, to reflect a bit on your role in shaping today’s and tomorrow’s tech.

What do you think? Can/ should environmental sustainability be a central part of digital design? What other tensions do you see between technical and behavioural sustainability? What alternatives do you see to human-centered design?

Resources:

Designing for Sustainability — Tim Frick

World Wide Waste — Gerry McGovern

World Wide Waste with Gerry McGovern — UI Breakfast (podcast)

Beyond Human-Centered Design — Space10

Advancing Sustainable Interaction Design — Eli Blevis

Design won’t save us — Jesse Weaver

Sustainable web design — James Christie

How 6 million Pounds of Electronic Waste gets Recycled a Month — Business Insider (video)

ToxiCity: life at Agbobloshie, the world’s largest e-waste dump in Ghana — RT Documentary