You've heard about the eco-design, responsible digital? I mean it! This is good news because this practice aims to reduce the environmental impact of a site, whether at the time of its design, redesign or online life. At Be API we are aware that our industry is (too) heavy.
Digital is 4% of the global greenhouse gas emission ( 2020 figure). That is to say, it is equivalent or even higher than civil aviation emissions!
Our sector is actually energy efficient! By 2030 the share of digital in global electricity consumption will be 30%. (source Nature). In addition, an Internet user consumes 3100 kWh of energy annually, 420 kg of greenhouse gases and 9700 litres of water (source: GreenIT), only by browsing websites.
It is essential to focus on reducing our impact, but be careful about greenwashing! Eco-design is more than just producing a site with sober artistic direction. This approach must anchor the global in your CSR policy and includes also and above all performance parameters, d
Be reassured, the ecological effort is also beneficial for your business goals!
The 3 reasons to design your next website
1. To reduce your carbon footprint
Usefulness : The first (and not the simplest) question to ask is: What if a non-digital version would not be more efficient/useful? Indeed, eco-design is a virtuous approach but a site that does not exist will in fact be more ecological! So, ask yourself the question through a thinking design approach, workshops with your users, if the tool you want to design is really useful in digital version.
Accommodation is a very energetic component. Choose an environmentally friendly, renewable energy host. Infomaniak is a good example of virtuous accommodation (read more Here) but there are others among which to find happiness.
Sobriety is the master word for design when it comes to eco-design. In the workshop, upstream of wireframes and models, it is important to define precisely the need, to know what features are really useful, to study the existing one and to eliminate everything that is not essential.
In addition, when a need is expressed, the question must be asked of the technical solution which requires as little code as possible.
Here are some basic rules:
- Design mobile first for a sober design
- Optimize as much as possible the tree and the number of pages on your site.
- Avoid videos, animated gifs, sliders, unnecessary animations.
- Prefer a dark background/background to limit screen consumption
- Compress images
- Prefer standard fonts, do not use more than 2 typographies.
Test your site now!
If you want to understand the impact of your current site, there are tools that allow you to audit:
The government, which is developing its « Design system" (French compulsory!) works on the topic of ecodesign and has made it a priority. A good practice repository is available here to answer your questions:
https://ecoresponsible.numerique.gouv.fr/publications/referential-general-ecodesign/
2. To serve your visibility and goals.
Google and search engines promote the most efficient websites in terms of speed of display and loading in their Ranking algorithm, thus designing and developing your next website in a sober eco-design approach will improve your natural SEO.
This is undoubtedly the most striking effect, and the most rapidly visible effect of an ecodesign.
For more than 7 in 10 users, lack of performance is the first cause of uninstalling an app or rebounding on a site.
On the other hand, smooth navigation is an indispensable factor in bringing back users.
By reworking your content, the tree and user paths more simply, removing content, animations and superfluous elements, your users access content faster. Whatever the goals and KPIs of your website (bounce rate, transformation rate, time spent, etc.), a eco-design work will improve your performance.
3. For your users
The accessibility of your site is a key indicator of an eco-designed site. Thinking and thinking about the diversity of the audience is essential.
This means that by working to reduce the environmental impact of your site, and respecting good practices you will increase your readership and the number of people who will be able to view your pages.
Today in France we count:
- blind or visually impaired (2 million people)
- Deaf or hard of hearing (5 million people)
- Daltonism (5% of the population)
Beyond good practice (and a legal obligation), digital accessibility favours an economic model that advocates fundamental values, such as inclusion, equality and non-discrimination, ecology and digital sobriety. This is demonstrated by the National Digital Council in its 2020 report.
https://cnumerical.fr/our-work/accessibility-numerical-in-necessity-and-opportunity
If you are wondering about the accessibility of your site you can find the answers in this game of the OAA of the Digital Services Design division of the government.
https://design.numerique.gouv.fr/accessibility-numerical/game-de-oaa
In summary
To sum up, think about ecodesign for your next website is:
- Useful for your company's environmental impact
- Increase the visibility of your website and its performance
- Ensure that it is accessible to all
At Be API we systematically offer our customers to enter this process, for their good and the good of their business.
Our latest eco-designed online update:
The Atlantic media site https://ma-maison-eco-comfort.atlantic.fr/
Are you interested in eco-design?
Contact us on the chat or via the contact form of our website https://beapi.fr/ 😉
