"In Conversation: Planet as Primary User": Further Exploration

Julia Whitney and Ray Ho (photo credit: Jason Mesut)

Ray Ho and I curated this list as a companion to our talk at Leading Design London 24 “In Conversation: Planet as Primary User”. If you don’t know where to begin, start with the very first link, “What a UXer can do about climate change today.” (Special thanks to the AutoTraders Digital Sustainability Team for sharing a heap of links to tools, articles, etc. via George Burton.)

What role can I play?

• What a UXer can do about climate change today by Mike Brzozowski
  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-uxer-can-do-climate-change-today-mike-brzozowski-zi8zc/?trackingId=3BPpez1JRt%2B8jxkvBwtwKA%3D%3D

• Looking to land the elusive “climate job”? You might already have it by Aiyana Bodi https://drawdown.org/insights/looking-to-land-the-elusive-%E2%80%9Cclimate-job%E2%80%9D-you-might-already-have-it

• Product Design Climate Change Action Guide
  https://drawdown.org/programs/drawdown-labs/job-function-action-guides/product-design

“Green” Design Principles (examples)

• Microsoft
  https://microsoft.design/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Microsoft-Green-Design-Principles.pdf

• the UK Government
  https://designnotes.blog.gov.uk/2023/12/21/developing-a-set-of-principles-for-the-design-and-delivery-of-greener-services/

• Sustainable Web Design: 29 UX Design Guidelines https://sustainablewebdesign.org/guideline-categories/user-experience-design/

Communities

• The Sustainable UX Network https://sustainableuxnetwork.com/

• Climate Designers https://www.climatedesigners.org/

• Climate UX https://rosenfeldmedia.com/community/climate-ux/

• Climate Action Tech https://climateaction.tech/

Design Process/Methods

• Design Council: Systemic Design Toolkit
  https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-resources/systemic-design-framework/#c8282

• Tools for environment-centered designers: Actant Mapping Canvas by Monika Sznel
  https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/tools-for-environment-centered-designers-actant-mapping-canvas-a495df19750e

• Your next persona will be non-human — tools for environment-centered designers by Monika Sznel https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/your-next-persona-will-be-non-human-tools-for-environment-centered-designers-c7ff96dc2b17

• MCJ (My Climate Journey) Podcast, Episode 78 BJ Fogg, Behavior Design Lab at Stanford
  https://www.mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/bj-fogg

Writing and Language

• CAT (Climate Action Tech) Salon: How to talk about climate so people act (with Ollie Burch)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8iWt9KGMpc

• How language can help break down sustainability barriers
  Laura Palotie, Timecode: 16:23 - 25:00 
  https://rosenfeldmedia.com/sessions/ux-in-everyday-products-empowering-climate-conscious-choices/

• Potential energy/John Marshall - messaging
  https://potentialenergycoalition.org/guides-and-reports/global-report/

Broader Context

• Buy Now - Netflix doc on consumerism culture
  https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/buy-now-shopping-conspiracy-release-date-news

• Doughnut economics
  https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/

• Climate Science Breakthrough (YouTube channel)
  https://www.youtube.com/@ClimateScienceBreakthrough

Products / examples

• https://www.future.green/ - cashback card on ‘green’ purchases

• https://www.thecommons.earth/ - rewards program for being a sustainable consumer

• https://goodonyou.eco/ - ethical fashion platform / curator

Agencies

• Wholegrain Digital (London) https://www.wholegraindigital.com/

• Rob Bartlett Design (Kent) https://www.robbartlett.design/pages/rob_bartlett_design_reductive_design.html

• Supercool (Birmingham) https://supercooldesign.co.uk/

• MEK Studio (Australia) https://mek.studio/

• Big Studio (Germany / Global) https://big.tc/

• The Goodwins (Germany) https://thegoodwins.de/en/

Manifestos

• Ken Garland’s 1964 First Things First Manifesto (for historical reference)
  http://www.designishistory.com/1960/first-things-first/

• Design Declares https://designdeclares.com/

• Sustainable Web Manifesto https://www.sustainablewebmanifesto.com/

Websites

• Sustainable Web Design https://sustainablewebdesign.org/

• The Green Web Foundation https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/

• The Green Software Foundation https://greensoftware.foundation/

• Life-centred Design Labhttps://lifecentred.design

Podcasts and Videos

• SUX - The Sustainable UX Podcast (16 episodes) https://open.spotify.com/show/4PzK5bq6Q8x7NOcEPl4I6j

• CAT (Climate Action Tech) YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@climateactiontech9467

• CAT (Climate Action Tech) Salon: Digital sustainability pt. 1 – an introduction (with Tom Greenwood) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If4DnclNMKk

• Autotrader Product Podcast | Episode 37 | How to design and develop products sustainably https://youtu.be/oW9l3jp_1PA?si=g74AUpO_tBN_UoKX

• Green IO Podcast (47 episodes)
  https://podcasts.castplus.fm/greenio?utm_medium=header&utm_source=website_gaelduez

• Gerry McGovern: Earth Experience Design
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XcSA375DrM&t=3s

Articles

• Reducing Carbon Emissions on the Web by Berwyn Powell
  https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/09/reducing-carbon-emissions-on-web/

• Sustainable User Experience by Felix Heibeck
  https://medium.com/a-view-from-above/sustainable-user-experience-8260006f5232

• Greening the Web: How we can create Zero Carbon Websites by Tom Greenwood
  https://kinsta.com/blog/zero-carbon-websites/

• 20 Ways to make your website more energy efficient by Tom Greenwood
  https://www.wholegraindigital.com/blog/website-energy-efficiency/

• Your website is killing the planet by Delle Chan
  https://www.wired.co.uk/article/internet-carbon-footprint

• Green UI/UX Trends: Designing with Sustainability in Mind by Dana Kachan
  https://medium.muz.li/green-ui-ux-trends-designing-with-sustainability-in-mind-cf553bab973e

• Green is the New Black: 4 Green UX Design Tactics for a Sustainable Future by Dana Kachan
  https://medium.muz.li/green-is-new-black-4-green-ux-design-tactics-for-a-sustainable-future-7c95ae7fd8cb

• Using UX Design to Build a Sustainable Future by Katie O’Connor
  https://uxmag.com/articles/using-ux-design-to-build-a-sustainable-future

• Sustainable web design tips
  https://supercooldesign.co.uk/blog/sustainable-web-design-tips

• How UX and Sustainable Web Design Can Coexist
  https://loop11.medium.com/how-ux-sustainable-web-design-can-coexist-321b12b3cc22

• (Re)Defining sustainable e-commerce by Anna Rátkai
  https://uxdesign.cc/re-defining-sustainable-e-commerce-51cdc3e76d46

• The time for Environment-Centered Design has come by Monika Sznel
  https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/the-time-for-environment-centered-design-has-come-770123c8cc61

• For people and planet: moving beyond human-centred design By Andy Marsden and Geetika Kejriwal https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/for-people-and-planet-moving-beyond-human-centred-design/

Measuring the carbon emissions of digital products/services

• Website Carbon Calculator https://www.websitecarbon.com/

• Ecograder https://ecograder.com/

• CoderDuck Page Size Checker  https://www.coderduck.com/page-size-checker/

• Pingdom Website Speed Test https://tools.pingdom.com/#60b3f14bcdc00000

• Start calculating digital carbon emissions in 5 minutes with CO2.js
  https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/news/start-calculating-digital-carbon-emissions-in-5-minutes-with-co2-js/