Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
This video is featured in the Climate UX Case Studies playlist.
Summary
Addressing climate in your UX work can feel out-of-bounds, but this story—and the approach it inspired—proves otherwise. While helping to optimise a client’s website for performance, James had a eureka moment: realising that if you focus on minimising key user journeys, you create the maximum value for users and the business while minimising your impact on the planet. Building on that insight, James has developed a simple and practical digital decarbonisation approach that empowers UX professionals to integrate climate-conscious approaches into their everyday work by focussing on minimising the carbon footprint of their highest value user journeys. Watch this session learn the benefits of minimising and how to use this approach to help them create better user experiences that create the maximum value for the business and our users, while minimising their impact on the planet. Key takeaways: How to use this approach to create space for climate-conscious work in your UX role Why minimising benefits people, planet, performance and profit Pragmatic methods for achieving sustainable outcomes in real-world projects How to decarbonise high-value user journeys by minimising and applying the W3C’s Web Sustainability Guidelines
Key Insights
-
•
Optimizing website performance by reducing page weight can unintentionally reduce carbon emissions significantly, as shown by an 80% drop during the Talk to Frank project.
-
•
Minimalization in UX—doing more with less—aligns directly with sustainability goals and is already embedded in good design practices like simplicity and efficiency.
-
•
Visualizing carbon footprint as an added swim lane in user journey maps can effectively communicate environmental impact to stakeholders.
-
•
Sustainability efforts in UX can use performance improvements as a 'Trojan horse' to gain client buy-in without always explicitly naming climate goals.
-
•
Starting with focused, high-value user journeys makes decarbonization projects more manageable and actionable, avoiding overwhelm.
-
•
Tools like Google Lighthouse and website carbon calculators are accessible ways to quantify the environmental impact and performance of digital products.
-
•
Balancing accessibility with carbon footprint requires thoughtful design decisions since some accessibility enhancements may increase digital resource use.
-
•
Web sustainability guidelines contain valuable advice but often feel overwhelming; distilling them into actionable, prioritized steps increases usability.
-
•
Extending carbon-conscious UX thinking beyond digital journeys to service design and broader organizational ecosystems is possible but more complex to measure.
-
•
UX professionals already possess the skills to integrate sustainability seamlessly by leveraging familiar processes like information architecture, content audits, and journey mapping.
Notable Quotes
"We can make this thing go faster, more people can access it, but we can have benefits for the planet as well."
"Sustainability is already in our DNA as UX people because we talk about less is more and good design is as little design as possible."
"Minimalization feels like a secret mega principle with huge benefits for performance, people, planet, prosperity, and purpose."
"Performance could be a useful Trojan horse for sustainability in organizations where direct climate talk might not work."
"Starting small on a specific journey is key to avoiding overwhelm and proving value before scaling decarbonization efforts."
"Visualizing carbon emissions on user journeys provokes conversations that numbers alone might not evoke."
"We don’t put users in a position to make sustainability trade-offs; the design must do the heavy lifting upstream."
"The obsession with precise carbon calculations is less helpful than focusing on relative impact to guide improvements."
"Information architecture and digital housekeeping are lost arts that need revival to help minimize unnecessary digital clutter."
"Aim for progress over perfection; continuous improvement will get us closer to sustainable digital experiences."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Having a well-thought-out data package really helps us see a fuller picture."
Brad Peters Anne MamaghaniShort Take #1: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"I like to think of myself as a DJ at a party, amplifying the power of design so more people can dance to the future."
Lona MooreScaling Design Beyond Designers
June 11, 2021
"AI is a design material, not just a tool or function you add to an experience."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"75% of democratized studies don’t see full reporting mostly because stakeholders don’t have time for the analysis."
Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke HintonDistributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
March 10, 2022
"Follow-up questions missed opportunities to probe deeper or were confusing, and participants had to repeat themselves."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"Workshops often reveal gaps in documentation, which is a spicy take but true."
Charles Lee Jennie YipBuilding a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
October 22, 2020
"Data is not just numbers; it tells us the story of student learning."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"If you see a problem or opportunity, you should do something about it."
Megan BlockerGetting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
"Shared mental models serve as organizing frameworks that all players in the system can understand and make decisions within."
Shanti Mathew Natalie Sims Natalia RadywylCivic Design at Scale: Introducing the Public Policy Layer Cake
December 9, 2021
