Designing for Sustainability

Pixels use electricity. If the internet were a country, it would be the sixth largest in terms of electricity use. The average web page (according to the HTTP Archive) is now over 2 megabytes in size. Bloated websites lead to slow load times, frustrated users, and wasted energy. This book identifies four key areas where sustainability principles can be applied to the process of creating websites that are speedy, user-friendly and energy-efficient: findability, performance optimization, design and user experience, and green hosting. Design and user experience (UX) are where the seeds of web sustainability are sown. Websites that provide a streamlined experience—putting the right things in front of users at precisely the moment needed and nothing more—are more sustainable websites. In the case of the web, people-friendly is also more planet-friendly. This book will help you get there.