The future of UX is green

UTURE OFFUT n e e r g E OFGOVERE O S I X U F O E R THE FUTU Hidde de Vries, UX London, 3 June 2026

⽩ G Most of the world’s population v. X

→ C

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/22/89-percent-project-climate-change О т ⼭ The Guardian Eurv News Op in io n Sport Culture Li fe sty le Wo r l dU KClimatec r i s i sU k r a i n eE n v i r o n m e n tS c i e n c eGlobald e v e l o p m e n tF o o t b a l lT e c hB u s i n e s sObituaries The 89% project T h e Guardian Most of the world’s population wants stronger climate action. They just don’t realize that they are a majority The Guardian is joining forces with dozens of newsrooms around the world to launch a year-long exploration of the ‘silent majority’ of people who want to fight climate change Tue 2 2 Apr 2025 07.35 CEST < Share The 8 9Percent

Yes, we’re all somewhat hypocritical. And…

We can make the world greener

We can make the world greener faster at work

ICT emissions > aviation emissions

“If the internet was a country it th would be the 13 largest emitter between Mexico and Brazil” – Sustainable Web Manifesto (based on CO2 emissions in Our World in Data vs IT emissions data from Green Web Foundation)

Website Carbon Rating Scale based on Grams CO2e per pageview websitecarbon.com/introducing-the-website-carbon-rating-system

websitecarbon.com

SWDM Data transfer Amount of GB transferred when using a service Sustainable Web Design Model Average Emissions per Page View (gCO2e) = ([(OPDC × (1 - Green Hosting Factor) + EMDC) + (OPN + EMN) + (OPUD + EMUD)] × New Visitor Ratio) + ([(OPDC × (1 - Green Hosting Factor) + EMDC) + (OPN + EMN) + (OPUD + EMUD)] × Return Visitor Ratio × (1 - Data Cache Ratio)) sustainablewebdesign.org/estimating-digital-emissions Carbon intensity Grams of carbon emitted per kWh at a given time.

We can make the world greener faster at work

t af Dr te No Web Sustainability Guidelines w3.org/TR/web-sustainability-guidelines

t af Dr 100+ contributors 72 guidelines 225 success criteria w3.org/TR/web-sustainability-guidelines te No Developed at the World Wide Web Consortium

User Experience Design Hosting, Infrastructure & Systems Web Development w3.org/TR/web-sustainability-guidelines Business Strategy & Product Management

Data centres Emissions of server hardware (making and running) What adds to the footprint of the WWW? 10100101010 101010101010 101010101010 101010101010 101010101010 10100101010 Networks Data downloads/ uploads Consumer devices Manufacturing laptops, phones, tablets that access the web

Elimination vs offsetting

n o i t a n Elimination Elimi vs offsetting

We can make the world greener faster at work

Make smaller web pages

Median website size is growing and growing… Data: HTTPArchive 2011 467 kB 2025 2678 kB

Minimise images and videos

A Dutch City Total page size: 1,2 MB

A Dutch City Hero image: 367 KB (32%)

“Detail is data” – Emily Trotter (Nomensa) on images in Planet Centred Design youtube.com/watch?v=znz-f_QEGnQ

Ways to save images Blur or blur parts Remove some background Simplify image Use image compression

Reduce assets (especially JavaScript)

css-tricks.com/reduce-your-websites-environmental-impact-with-a-carbon-budget

hidde.blog/the-web-is-fast-by-default-lets-keep-it-fast

• 151 requests • 1.3 MB transferred • over 20 JavaScript files • pictures of palm trees hidde.blog/the-web-is-fast-by-default-lets-keep-it-fast

What if we optimised for simplicity (radically)? • 2 KB • 0.2 seconds to load hidde.blog/the-web-is-fast-by-default-lets-keep-it-fast

there is so much in between (this is also about attitude)

The same website today. It’s even bigger.

41KB

13.2MB and yes, I accepted cookies, so the number includes ads

website size is a choice

As people in tech, for us a large part of this is a people problem

WSG 5.2. Assign a sustainability representative

Support older devices

Product Environmental Report i P h o n e 14 P r o Date introduced September 7, 2022 M a d e with better materials Tackling climate change 100% 100% 100% recycled gold in the recycled rare earth wire of all cameras elements in all magnets We’re committed to transitioning our entire manufacturing supply chain to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.

sy focusing iPhone1 4 Pro ene wa ble life cycle carbon emissions a m helped 81% Production ation.4 Apple e down 3% 15% Transport Use <1% End-of-life processing

sy focusing iPhone1 4 Pro enewable life cycle carbon emissions a m helped 8 1 % Production ation.4 Apple e down 3% 15% <1% Transport Use End-of-life processing

Don’t be the reason users upgrade

Dutch CoronaCheck app required Android 6+, iOS 12+ It made front page news.

Dutch CoronaCheck app required Android 6+, iOS 12+ There was a paper fallback. QR code for travel

Progressive enhancement Make functionality available in simpler ways before adding more complex ways.

Progressive enhancement is a good green approach

Choose green hosting

Eemshaven, the Netherlands

Middenmeer, the Netherlands 110 hectare / 271 acres

International Energy Agency,

Use or move to a green provider

WSG 4.1. Choose a sustainable hosting provider

Find out current state thegreenwebfoundation.org

GWF lists 362 verified green hosting providers in 37 countries. Ask sales reps how theirs compares.

Factors include: renewable energy equipment longevity waste recycling From: WSG, 4.1

Carbon-aware design choices

Carbon intensity How clean energy is at a given time 2 (eg CO /kWh)

Our team

Our team Anna Mei Jacob Ouiam David George

organicbasics Organic Sweat!

Shop Women Shop M e n organicbasics Regular store LOWI infact website Sho p wom en S ho p m en Manifesto EUR D

blog.google/company-news/outreach-and-initiatives/sustainability/carbon-aware-computing-location

Only necessary features

Avoid technology that has relatively large energy use

AI

I I s Al Profitable Yet? X

⼼凸 https://isaiprofitable.com L B ookmar ks I S AI PROFITABLE NO. YET? TRACKINGT H ES P E N DA N DREVENUEO F EVERYONE’S BROKE. FRONTIER A I COMPANIES (MAY 2 0 2 6 ) . $1.4T $613B $0 T O T A LI N D U S T R YS P E N D TOTAL I N D U S T R Y R E V E N U E $ S P E N T O N A I S I N C E PA G E LOAD

International Energy Agency, Electricity 2024, Analysis and forecast to 2026.

AI

“Emissions would increase by 60× for a GPT-3 style model – Wim Vanderbauwhede wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/google-search-vs-chatgpt-emissions

“Emissions would increase by 60× for a GPT-3 style model; for a GPT-4 style model, it could be 200×.” – Wim Vanderbauwhede wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/google-search-vs-chatgpt-emissions

AI

“DrillOps”

“AGI”

“AGI” • Not well defined • Not in existence • Not sure if it can solve global warming

OpenAl Lo g in Yo u r s e a r c h global warming

OpenAl Lo g in Yo u r s e a r c h global warming Summary It looks like your question goes beyond what we can assist with here. Advanced search is designed to help you find information on openai.com, such as our products, research, and updates. v Disclaimer: B e t a f e a t u r e i n testing. Learn m o r e

Adding AI could mean magnitudes more emissions

…so finding alternatives is green

V PostNL maakte in 2025 toch win X D + → c + 8 https://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/postnl-maakte-in-2025-toch-winst-op-postbezorging-vooral ⼼ q 亥出⼥ • J Bookmarks d e Volkskrant = Voorpagina Columns Opinie Cartoons Luister Cultuur &Media NIEUWS PostNL m a a k t e i n 2025 t o c h winst op postbezorging, vooral dankzij zakelijke post PostNL heeft vorig jaar op de postbezorging een kleine winst geboekt van 2miljoen euro. Dit kwam vooral door de groei van de zakelijke post in december. Het bedrijf gaat desalniettemin door met de juridische procedures tegen het kabinet, dat financiële steun heeft afgewezen. Foto Puzz.els

Humans can add a summary into the CMS (especially journalists)

Maybe let users opt-out of what’s carbon-intense

WSG e h t e t a c i n u 5.4 Comm r e s u f o t c a p m i l a c i g o l eco choices

You could give users choice Greener option !

Always be looking for alternatives

We can make the world greener faster at work

There are opportunities to save emissions for us as UX designers

Summary Make smaller web pages Support older devices Choose green hosting Carbon-aware design choices Only necessary features (AI has a toll)

Thank you! Thanks to Alexander Dawson, Tantek Çelik, Rose Newell, Fershad Irani, Matijs Brinkhuis, Michelle Barker. Slides + links are live on hidde.blog/slides

Links HTTP Archive Web Almanac 2024, Sustainability. https:// almanac.httparchive.org/en/2024/sustainability Green Software Foundation, https://learn.greensoftware.foundation/. GOV.UK, Greening Government Commitments ICT annual report 2023 to 2024, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-governmentict-annual-report-2023-to-2024/greening-government-commitments-ictannual-report-2023-to-2024

Tools Ecograder, https://ecograder.com/. Are My Third Parties Green, https://aremythirdpartiesgreen.com/. Website Carbon, https://www.websitecarbon.com/.

Books Gerry McGovern, World Wide Waste (2020). Anne Currie, Sarah Hsu, Sara Bergman, Building Green Software (2024). Tom Greenwood, Sustainable Web Design (2021). Tim Frick, Designing for Sustainability (2016).

Technical specifications Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification. https:// sci.greensoftware.foundation/. Digital Services Ecodesign ISO standard. https://www.iso.org/standard/ 86105.html Web Sustainability Guidelines. https://w3c.github.io/sustainableweb-wsg/