Posted on by Ela Gorla in Design and development
More and more organisations are conscious about the environmental impact of their products - both physical or digital - and are trying to make positive changes.
Applying inclusive best practices when designing digital products results not only in more accessible products but also in more sustainable ones.
One of TetraLogical's founding principles is Ethical:
We make decisions for the good of our customers and their customers, our team, and for the world at large.
We also strive to be Sustainable:
We work collaboratively and efficiently to amplify enduring accessibility.
As part of our commitment to being ethical and sustainable, we are constantly looking for long-lasting solutions to reduce our environmental impact for the good of the planet. We are glad to find that more and more of our customers share our dedication to sustainability. While we are not experts on the subject, we can still contribute to their sustainability goals by helping them create inclusive products. This is because inclusive digital products are often green products.
When considering digital products and sustainability, many people think of the environmental costs of building, using, and dismantling hardware or the footprint of inefficient code. Few realise the huge impact that design choices can have on the carbon emissions of websites and mobile apps.
The Inclusive Design Principles (IDP) are a set of seven high-level principles that can help create truly inclusive experiences by considering the needs and preferences of all people. As this post illustrates, these principles can also help build greener products.
Here is an overview of how applying each principle can help you reduce your carbon emissions.
Provide comparable experience: Ensure your interface provides a comparable experience for all so people can accomplish tasks in a way that suits their needs without undermining the quality of the content.
The first Inclusive Design Principle invites designers to think about comparable alternatives to content that may not be accessible to all. For example, people who are blind or have a slow Internet connection may not be able to see or load images; people who are Deaf or are in a noisy environment without headphones may not be able to hear audio content. To provide an equitable experience in these two scenarios, provide an alternative, comparable format such as an accurate text descriptions for images or a comprehensive text transcript for audio content. The same applies to documents such as PDFs, animations, and other multimedia content.
A similar requirement is in the Web Sustainable Guidelines being currently developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Being larger in size, media content and some downloadable files require a larger amount of energy to load and transmit compared to text-based content. When a text alternative is available, many people may decide to access the alternative instead of playing the multimedia content or downloading the large document. By providing a comparable alternative you will not only ensure everybody has access to information, you'll also potentially reduce your website's carbon footprint.
Consider situation: People use your interface in different situations. Make sure your interface delivers a valuable experience to people regardless of their circumstances.
People are likely to access your digital products on a wide variety of devices and in a variety of situations. For example using a laptop while sitting at a desk, using their smartphone outdoors, or using a smart speaker while cooking.
When designing digital products, ensure they work well across devices, Operating Systems (OSs), screen sizes, and even without a screen!
This greatly helps people with disabilities who may need to use a specific device, assistive technology, or a specific orientation. It also helps reduce e-waste; when products don't work well across all devices (especially older devices) people are forced to replace them, which results in unnecessary and harmful landfill. Furthermore, devices with smaller or no screens consume less energy, which again reduces carbon emissions.
Be consistent: Use familiar conventions and apply them consistently.
Consistency makes digital products easier to use for everybody. When User Interface (UI) components use consistent visuals, labels, and locations people can find and operate them with ease.
Consistency is particularly important for people with permanent, temporary, and situational thinking disabilities, such as people with a brain injury or a migraine.
Better User Experience (UX) generally means less time spent on your website or app, as people are able to complete tasks quicker. The positive environmental impact of this is lower energy consumption. Using existing components, for example from an accessible design system or component library, reduces organisations' carbon emissions as developers won't use additional energy (and time) to write new code. The code of well-established components is also likely to be tidier and more efficient.
Give control: Ensure people are in control. People should be able to access and interact with content in their preferred way.
Inclusive products support people using assistive technologies and adaptive strategies. Some people may need to navigate a website using a screen reader for example, some may prefer to use a mobile app with an external keyboard, some may choose to customise the way content is displayed.
Other than working well with a wide variety of assistive technologies and input devices (as discussed under Principle 2: Consider situation above), your products must support OSs' and browsers' customisation options. Things like dark themes, larger text, reduced animation, and so on.
Customisation support is a key concept of inclusion - you cannot predict how someone may like or need to access your content, hence your content must adapt and adjust as required.
It can also help you reach your sustainability goals. Many of the customisation options available in OSs and browsers consume less energy than the standard content display. For example, animations can be quite large and require a considerable amount of energy to play. By ensuring your animations pause when reduced motion (or a similar option) is selected in a device's settings, you lower your content's carbon footprint. Similarly, researches have shown that using dark themes in devices with an OLED display has a positive impact on the environment.
Offer choice: Consider providing different ways for people to complete tasks, especially those that are complex or non standard.
People like to do things differently. For example, some people like to use a mouse, others a keyboard, and others voice commands. Some people may find using a search functionality the easiest way to find information on a website, others may prefer to use the navigation menu.
When possible, design alternative ways to complete tasks. This will improve the user experience for many people.
Some of these alternative ways of completing actions may also result in a lower energy consumption. If your service can be accessed both on a visual device (such as a laptop) and on a screenless device (such as a smart speaker), some people will choose to use the screenless device which consumes less energy. If your website contains both a navigation menu and a search functionality, some will use search and find information faster and with less page loading, again consuming less energy overall.
Prioritise content: Help users focus on core tasks, features, and information by prioritising them within the content and layout.
With so much content on the screen, it is sometimes difficult to focus on the task at hand. This is particularly true for some people with thinking disabilities, such people with ADHD. This is why prioritising content is so important.
When designing pages, prioritise key information and components; decorative images and animations, ads, and other unnecessary content should be limited as much as possible.
A simplified design helps people who may struggle to focus and complete tasks otherwise. It also makes it easier for everybody to understand and find the information and functionality available on a website or app.
Less time spent looking for information or completing a task means less energy used. A clean design also means less data to load, especially when free of heavy media files and animations.
Add value: Consider the value of features and how they improve the experience for different users.
The last Inclusive Design Principle is all about identifying and using features that can improve people's experience on your website or app.
As mentioned earlier, better UX reduces the amount of time spent trying to complete tasks, which in turn reduces carbon emissions.
As an example, a simple feature you can include when designing a login form is the "Show password" button. This can prevent many people from submitting an incorrect password and having to re-fill the form. Such a simple solution improves the experience for your users and reduces the environmental impact of your website by avoiding unnecessary form reloads.
Applying inclusive best practices can help you design products that are better for the people and for the planet.
Here are some resources on digital sustainability you may find interesting:
For more information on how we can help you create inclusive products, visit our Services page or contact us at hello@tetralogical.com.
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