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Decarbonising User Journeys: How minimising enables us to do more with less
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
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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.
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Minimalization in UX—doing more with less—aligns directly with sustainability goals and is already embedded in good design practices like simplicity and efficiency.
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Visualizing carbon footprint as an added swim lane in user journey maps can effectively communicate environmental impact to stakeholders.
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Sustainability efforts in UX can use performance improvements as a 'Trojan horse' to gain client buy-in without always explicitly naming climate goals.
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Starting with focused, high-value user journeys makes decarbonization projects more manageable and actionable, avoiding overwhelm.
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Tools like Google Lighthouse and website carbon calculators are accessible ways to quantify the environmental impact and performance of digital products.
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Balancing accessibility with carbon footprint requires thoughtful design decisions since some accessibility enhancements may increase digital resource use.
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Web sustainability guidelines contain valuable advice but often feel overwhelming; distilling them into actionable, prioritized steps increases usability.
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Extending carbon-conscious UX thinking beyond digital journeys to service design and broader organizational ecosystems is possible but more complex to measure.
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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."
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