Sustainable UX design shifts the focus from user- or human-centered design to humanity-centered design. It covers two main areas: Accessible and Inclusive design, and Environmentally Conscious design. This checklist is here to help designers at Identio to follow sustainable design principles in their work.

💛 Accessible and Inclusive design

Ensure the design meets the required WCAG standard, still always at least AA-level

• [ ] Text-background contrast is sufficient
• [ ] Font size is sufficient
• [ ] Toucharea is sufficient on touchscreens
• [ ] System status is reported to the user
• [ ] Language is plain and simple

General rule of thumb: When in doubt about which way to go, review WCAG and choose the most accessible way

Aim for gender neutrality

• [ ] Create gender-neutral or -inclusive personas
• [ ] Avoid gender-related content unless it has a clear need or purpose
• [ ] Use gender-neutral or -inclusive examples and mock data (e.g. user names and images)

Aim for equality

• [ ] Create personas that have varied ethnic backgrounds and looks
• [ ] Include varied ethnic backgrounds and looks in your examples and mock data

Aim for fairness

• [ ] Design solutions that treat users fairly and prioritize their wellbeing
• [ ] Do not use dark patterns, even to satisfy stakeholders

💚 Environmentally conscious design

Design for ecosystems

• [ ] Consider the direct and indirect effects of your design
  • who and what else other than the users is affected by your design?
• [ ] Review your design within the systemic context

Consider product lifecycle

• [ ] Design to last without extensive modifications and complete rewrites
• [ ] Think about what happens to data after the product is not used anymore

Aim for efficiency and minimalism

• [ ] Design solutions that require fewer server requests and less intensive processing
• [ ] Design minimalist layouts that are fast to load (and cause less cognitive load for the users)
• [ ] Design with a little less of everything. A little less images, a little less content, a little less visual overload, a little less data storage

Aim for a sustainable color palette

• [ ] Incorporate dark mode whenever possible
• [ ] Consider using less energy-intensive colors
  • In general, darker colors use less energy than brighter colors on OLED screens with high screen brightness
  • White and blue are more energy-intensive than red and green
• [ ] Design to work with low screen brightness

Aim for sustainable font choices

• [ ] Consider using system fonts
• [ ] Prefer variable fonts
• [ ] Prefer WOFF(2) format
• [ ] Prefer hosting font files on the server instead of using third-party libraries

Consider the use of images

• [ ] Avoid using large-size images
• [ ] Use compact media formats

Consider hardware suitability

• [ ] Design to function on the lowest necessary specifications
• [ ] Understand the project-specific hardware requirements
  • E.g. not all products need to be responsive on multiple screen sizes