“We only got 4 minutes”

It's February, and we're only a month away from warmer weather. So I decided to share some thoughts on what some might consider a more spring-like topic: Environmental Design.

What exactly is Environmental Design?

Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. It seeks to create spaces that will enhance the natural, social, cultural, and physical environment of areas.

As much as I'd like to delve into this vast and fascinating subject, I'd like to focus my thoughts on how we at USANA can integrate more of this type of thinking and processes into our work, which primarily falls within the product and digital products realm.

Most of us, myself included, may not think about how the internet affects the environment. However, according to a Harvard study, content-rich news websites can produce more greenhouse gases over time if their pages are left open for extended periods of time. And according to a 2014 Greenpeace study, if the internet were a country, It would rank sixth in terms of power consumption, trailing China, the United States, Japan, India, and Russia

It makes you consider how much energy each text message or email we send, each photograph we post, and each social network status update consumes. The price we are beginning to see is more foreboding and troubling, especially when we consider the impact the internet has on our lives and society.

This is where we as designers, researchers, and innovators can contribute.

During the design process, we need to establish frameworks for discussing the environmental impact. Our design teams must be informed about the energy consumption of our digital products during the design phase, and we must design products that are efficient, usable, and sustainable.

The Internet is largely unsustainable, so we can have a huge effect over the long term with our contribution. There are a number of ways that designers can contribute.

• Ask the right questions:
        • Is the product solving areal-world problem?
         • How many steps does it take the users to accomplish their goal?
         • Does the flow of the page, content and navigation make sense?
         • Are we using standard and accepted guidelines and rules?
• Develop a Content strategy - Create a strategy that offers our users choices, such as environmentally friendly delivery methods and more strong ethical products.
• Think mobile first - Mobile first pushes designers to prioritize the content of an interface and to complete the core objectives of that UI before considering new features.
• Progressive enhancement principle  - Which means that if something offers a good experience on a smaller device with fewer resources, it can be improved for consumers on larger, more powerful devices, rather than the other way around.
• Save the trees  - Printing web pages may not be as prevalent today as it once was, but users still do so. To prevent excess printing, we need to find and implement designs that prevent excess pages.

Environmental design includes far more than simply being conscious of our websites', products', and buildings' environmental impacts. It is about creating experiences and making decisions that are fair, accessible, and inclusive to all.

As creatives, we have a tremendous opportunity to leave a lasting impression with our work. We must ensure that our design strategy is crucial to build a sustainable future that is accessible to all while also protecting the environment.

Finally, I'll close this month's newsletter with a quote from Steve Jobs:

“The design is not just what it looks like and feels like. The design is how it works”

‍

JVD

This month's newsletter is named after the song "4 Minutes" from Madonna's 2008 album Hard Candy.