Principles
The 6 pillars
Eco-design relies on six fundamental pillars:
A mindset
Integrate the environment as a qualitative criteria of any project.
Think functional unit
You do not eco design an app, you eco design a business action.
Life cycle assessment
Think through the global life cycle of a product from raw materials to its end life.
Environnemental KPIs
Integrate several KPIs (such as greenhouse effect, toxicity, resources consumption etc).
Full architecture integration
Keep in visibility the full architecture picture (servers, data centers and network)
Global context
Take into consideration all the environment of a product (partners, suppliers etc).
The French Institut Numérique Responsable created a handbook to provide a framework based on the triptych:
People
Reduce the social gap and improve living conditions through digital technology.
Planet
Reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology.
Prosperity
Digital technology, as a lever for growth, must be an opportunity for everyone.
Principle of frugality
Define the primary need and eliminate the non essential !
About 45%
of the functionalities requested are never used
70%
are not essential
The definition of the need is therefore a crucial step and each functionality must be challenged by the Product Owner or the UX designer.
The project's stakeholders can base their reflections on the functional unit. The functional unit corresponds to the main function that the service fulfills and often translates into a business act.
Questions to ask:
First question to ask is "For who this digital service will be needed ?"
Is there a user need to use digital for this service?
Are there other non-digital solutions to meet this user's need?
What are the real user needs that justify the creation of the service?
Does the added value of the service justify the mobilization of the resources required for its creation?
Do we create more value than we destroy?
Is this functionality really necessary? Can we do it otherwise?
What would happen if we did not have it?
What are the risks of a rebound effect when using the service?
Principle of simplicity
Today's business models are essentially based on capturing attention and therefore on increasing the time spent on the application. But the more time a user spends on a site to accomplish his objective, the higher the environmental footprint will be.
Here, eco-design joins the good practices of attention economy.
Questions to ask:
What is the functional unit?
How many steps does it take to get there?
Is this path accessible?
How can I increase the usage rate while shortening the journey?
What is the minimum technology needed to solve the problem?
Does it work on mobile and desktop?
Is the size of the buttons and fields adapted to mobile?
Evaluate as a mindset
When you start with an existing product, you can assess the environmental impact of the user journey and identify areas for improvement. After defining the functional unit and the usage path, evaluate the environmental footprint of the user path.
When you start from scratch, you can establish an environmental budget. In the same way that a digital project imposes budgetary or time constraints on itself, it could impose environmental constraints on itself.
Questions to ask:
What is the maximum weight that my page must weigh to be viewed quickly whatever the conditions (network, device)?
What could be the negative impacts of using the product in the short and long term?
Do the benefits of the product outweigh its negative impacts?
If the environment were my customer, what would I change about my service?
To follow an eco design approach on my digital product, what kind of KPIs can I set up?
Resources
Other resources:
Book Ecodesign / The 115 best practices by Frederic Bordage