What Makes a Website Sustainable?
The average webpage produces 1.76g of CO2 per view. While this might seem insignificant, consider the millions of active websites globally. It then becomes clear how digital technology rivals the aviation industry in greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, we can reduce the carbon footprint of our websites by adopting sustainable practices. This guide explores key strategies for creating eco-friendly, efficient, and accessible web designs.
Eco-Friendly Web Design: Minimal and Thoughtful Approaches
Different types of screens use different technology to render their images. OLED screens, known for their vibrant colours and deep blacks, are increasingly popular in smartphones. Due to the nature of OLED screens, certain colours consume less energy. So the choice of colour palette of a website can reduce its environmental impact while also increasing your battery life. Darker colours are more a more favourable choice, with black, red and green using less energy than blue and white. It is also suggested that reading light coloured text on a dark background causes less eye strain and so can be more comfortable for many users. Choosing energy-efficient colours is one part of creating a minimalist, sustainable website. Simplifying design further amplifies these benefits by reducing the resources needed to load a page. The more that is included in your webpage, the more energy is used to process and render to our screens. A simple, decluttered website will not only reduce its impact on the planet, but also allow users to focus on the important information. One resource that is easy to eliminate is font files. Using system fonts eliminates the need for additional font files, reducing website loading times and energy use.
User Experience and Navigation: Better Practice for Users and the Planet
A minimal design that has been formatted wisely will allow users to consume the data easily. A clear, minimal design improves trust, user enjoyment, and ensures they quickly find the information they need. This results in less energy consumption without compromising the user experience. Clear and structured navigation will allow users to directly find the information they are looking for. As well as improving the impact on the planet, it is likely to mean users will find the information they are looking for. Sustainability isn't just about looking after the environment, it is important to consider social needs to. We should ensure all websites are accessible to all users regardless of their needs. Websites are used in a variety of different ways by different users. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) informs us on the improvements that can be made to open our websites to as wide an audience as possible. Often the changes to be made aren't major but can make a huge impact on someone with additional needs. Accessibility often comes in simple changes such as adding alt text to images, tweaking colour contrasts and using markup to support screen readers.
Efficient Coding and Fast Performance for Sustainable Websites
First impressions count in a big way on the internet. It is thought that most users will close a webpage if it does not load within 3 seconds. Loading content quickly is important for user experience, grabbing user attention, SEO purposes and reducing the amount of energy being consumed. A useful tool to improve performance is caching. Caching reduces the need to reload the entire webpage when users navigate back and forth between pages, saving time and energy. Further data caching can be used to reduce the load on the server in requesting data. It is important to identify any data that is business critical and should therefore not be cached to always be accurate in real time. Design frameworks can assist in making code more efficient. These frameworks, such as Bootstrap, can order and organise styles meaning no further custom code is needed for styling, even when more pages/elements are added.
Resource Optimisation: Reduce Website Energy Use
Resources, for instance images and videos can be optimised for performance and to be more eco friendly. The image format webp has been designed specifically for the internet to reduce file size while retaining a high quality. Images should also be sized appropriately and responsively to ensure the correct size is being loaded for its usage. Not all resources need to be loaded on page load. You can use lazy-loading techniques to ensure images load only when needed, saving energy and improving speed. Where possible files should be compressed to reduce their size and loads. Videos should not be loaded automatically playing. Auto-playing videos can disrupt user experience and increase energy usage. It should be left up to the user as to whether they wish to watch the video.
Managing Third-Party Scripts for Low Carbon Websites
It is important to have control of your website and the code that is being run. Third party scripts can be useful but these should come from trusted and transparent sources. Third party scripts can easily drain the performance of your website because you do not have the control and the third party are not dedicating time to improving their script. A common third party script to use is analytics. Analytics produce useful data to analyse how people are finding and using your website. Though analytic providers are not always prioritising a user's privacy. Look for an alternative where privacy is a top priority.
Future Proofing Websites for Sustainability and Longevity
Redesigning and redeveloping websites can be costly but also consume energy. It is better for the environment if you choose a design that is adaptable and easily expandable to future proof your online presence. Nowadays there are several hosting providers who offer a green solution and use renewable energy sources for their power. Choosing one of these providers is a simple change and can help towards your green credibility.
Create a Sustainable Website Today
There are a number of benefits of sustainable web design for businesses, including: Reduced costs Better user experience Positive brand reputation Appealing to a wide audience Whether you’re building a new eco-friendly website or optimising an existing one, we’ll help you create a digital presence that’s good for your business and the planet. Contact us today to get started!