Eco-Friendly UX: Designing Digital Products with the Planet in Mind

Step 1: Understand the Energy Impact of Your Digital Products

Before we start tweaking designs, it’s important to understand how digital products use energy. Every digital interaction—whether you’re on your phone, laptop, or even your smartwatch—requires energy. The amount of energy consumed depends on things like:

• Device Type: The kind of device your user is on matters. Smartphones, tablets, and laptops all have different energy needs. And the type of screen—whether it’s OLED, LCD, or LED—also plays a role in how much power is used. 
  • Take the iPhone 13, for example. Its OLED screen helps conserve battery by turning off individual pixels in dark areas of the screen. If you’re using an app with a dark mode, it’s actually saving energy by keeping those pixels switched off.
    
    
• Data Transmission: Every time data is transferred over the internet, whether it’s streaming a video or refreshing your social media feed, energy is used. The more data that’s exchanged, the more energy is required. 
  • Platforms like Netflix and YouTube offer lower-quality streaming options, especially for users with slower internet connections. This isn’t just about improving user experience—it’s about reducing energy consumption too.
    
    
• Processing Power: The more complex the app or website—heavy animations, large files, or intense background processes—the more it taxes the device’s CPU and GPU, meaning more energy is consumed. 
  • Google’s homepage is a great example of minimalism in design. It loads quickly and doesn’t require much processing power, making it a model of energy efficiency.

Recognizing where energy consumption happens is the first step in designing with sustainability in mind.

Step 2: Embrace Dark Mode to Save Energy

One of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce energy use in digital products—especially on OLED screens—is by offering dark mode. When the background of a screen is dark, energy use drops significantly because:

• OLED and AMOLED screens: On these screens, black pixels are turned off completely, which means less energy is used. It’s a major win for battery life. 
  • Just look at YouTube. Since rolling out dark mode, users with OLED screens noticed they could go longer without charging their devices. It’s an easy switch that saves energy with zero sacrifice to the user experience.
    
    
• Lower Brightness: Dark mode doesn’t just help with pixel management; it also reduces the need for high brightness, which, as anyone who’s ever had their phone die too soon knows, can be a huge drain on your battery.

Pro Tips for Dark Mode:

• Let users toggle between dark and light modes depending on what they prefer. Better yet, let the system auto-switch based on the time of day.
• Don’t just go pure black—dark blues or grays still save energy while being gentler on the eyes.
• Make sure text stands out clearly against the dark background. Readability should never be sacrificed for the sake of energy savings.

It’s a small change, but dark mode can make a big difference in how much energy your users are using, and let’s face it—many users love it, especially at night!

Step 3: Optimize Visuals for Performance

Heavy visual elements—think large images, videos, and flashy animations—aren’t just eye-catching; they also use a lot of energy. The more intense the visuals, the harder your device has to work. So, how can we create stunning visuals without overloading users’ devices?

1. Compress Your Images and Videos: Large, high-resolution images can quickly drain both data and battery. Compressing these without losing too much quality can make a huge difference.
   • Example: The New York Times compresses their images to reduce file sizes, which means the app loads faster, uses less data, and is more energy-efficient.
   • And don’t forget about formats! Using newer, more efficient formats like WebP for images can save a lot of energy without sacrificing visual quality.
     
     
2. Lazy Loading: Instead of loading all the images or videos at once, lazy loading only brings them in when the user is about to see them. This not only improves performance but also reduces unnecessary energy usage.
   • Example: Pinterest does a great job with lazy loading. When you scroll through the app, only the images you’re about to see load, saving both data and energy.
     
     
3. Simplify Animations: Animations are fun, but they can also drain a lot of energy, especially if they’re constantly running in the background. Instead, use subtle animations that don’t require excessive processing power.
   • Avoid using animations on every single page element. Keep it simple, and you’ll not only save energy but improve load times too.

Simple design can still be beautiful and engaging without the heavy battery drain.

Step 4: Reduce Data Usage

We don’t always think about it, but every time data is transmitted—whether it’s to load a webpage or stream a video—it takes energy. The more data, the more energy. Reducing data usage is a simple way to save power, and it’s something we can build into our products from the start.

How to Reduce Data Usage:

• Data Compression: Compress files like images, videos, and even text before sending them over the network. Gzip for text, WebP for images—these are small changes that can make a big difference. 
  • Example: Google’s search engine compresses both text and images to make sure the app loads faster and uses less energy.
    
    
• Efficient APIs: When designing APIs, keep them lean. Send only the data the user really needs, and don’t overload the system with unnecessary information. 
  • Example: Lyft uses optimized APIs to make sure the app uses less data when users are on the move.

By minimizing the amount of data your product needs to fetch and send, you’re reducing both bandwidth and energy consumption. It’s a win for performance and sustainability.

Step 5: Focus on Performance Efficiency

Energy-efficient design isn’t just about making things look pretty—it’s also about making sure your product runs efficiently. The less work the device has to do, the less energy it uses.

Here’s how you can make sure your product is running efficiently:

• Simplify Code: The less complex the code, the less processing power is needed. Clean, efficient code saves energy and improves performance. 
  • Example: Facebook’s engineering team works constantly to refactor their code, keeping things fast and energy-efficient.
    
    
• Optimize JavaScript and CSS: These files are usually the largest culprits when it comes to slowing down a website or app. Minimize them, remove unused code, and compress the files to make them smaller. 
  • Example: Pinterest uses Webpack to bundle and minimize code, which helps improve performance and reduce energy consumption.

Performance optimization doesn’t just improve user experience; it also saves energy, making the product more sustainable.

Step 6: Create Adaptive Designs Based on Energy Usage

Sometimes, the best way to save energy is to let the user decide what works best for them. Adaptive design takes into account things like battery life and system performance, adjusting the product accordingly.

Here’s what that might look like:

• Battery Saver Modes: Let users choose a mode that reduces screen brightness, limits background processes, and lowers visual complexity when their device is running low on power. 
  • Example: Google Maps has a battery-saving mode that dims the screen and reduces location accuracy when your battery is low.
    
    
• Dynamic Scaling: If the device is in battery-saving mode, automatically lower the quality of images and videos. 
  • Example: Some mobile games scale down graphic quality when battery life is running low, ensuring a smoother experience without draining power.

This way, users have control over how much energy they use, and it’s up to them how much they’re willing to sacrifice in the name of saving power.

Step 7: Teach Your Users About Energy-Saving Practices

While designers can do a lot to reduce energy consumption, users also play a part. Educating them on how they can make better choices can lead to even greater energy savings.

Ways to Educate Users:

• Energy-Saving Tips: Provide simple tips that users can follow to save energy. Encourage them to turn off auto-play videos or switch to dark mode to reduce battery usage. 
  
  • Example: YouTube offers energy-saving tips and makes it easy for users to switch to dark mode, helping them save power without thinking about it.
    
    
• Promote Sustainable Choices: Highlight features that allow users to lower their energy consumption. Make them easy to find and use. 
  • Example: Duolingo gamifies the process of saving energy by rewarding users for taking actions like reducing screen brightness or using energy-efficient settings.

By encouraging users to take small steps, you can help foster a culture of sustainability.

Step 8: Keep Improving

Designing for sustainability isn’t a one-time thing. It’s an ongoing process. As technology changes, so do the challenges and opportunities for energy efficiency.

How to Stay on Track:

• Use Analytics: Tools like Google Lighthouse can help you measure how much energy your product uses and identify areas for improvement. 
  • Example: Amazon constantly monitors its platform to find new ways to improve performance and reduce energy consumption.
    
    
• Gather User Feedback: Ask users how they’re experiencing your energy-saving features. They might have valuable insights that can help you improve.
  
  
• Test New Features: Regularly test new features and design tweaks to see how they affect energy consumption. Even small changes can have a big impact over time.

This isn’t a “one-and-done” effort—it’s about continuously striving to improve.