Eco-design guide for digital services
7. Designing and developing
Once the user needs and journey have been defined, you can move on to the design phase and apply the following best practices.
This list is far from being comprehensive, and the essence of the eco-design approach consists in always asking yourself what the actual user needs are.
7.1 Images
Images represent a significant portion of the size of each page. Reducing their dimensions, optimizing them and choosing the right formats can greatly reduce their size.
7.2 Video and audio
Video resources are generally very heavy. To reduce their weight, compress them, do not use video backgrounds, avoid integrating them via a plugin.
7.3 Animations
Keep animations to a minimum, avoid animated GIFs and carousels in autoplay, avoid chatbots.
7.4 Fonts
Custom fonts need to be downloaded, so it is better to use standard fonts that are pre-installed on the user terminal.
7.5 Plugins and widgets
Avoid the use of widgets and plugins such as social media icons, Google Maps, embedded videos.
7.6 Content
Writing the content in a clear and simple way, and making browsing easier will also be beneficial in terms of accessibility.
7.7 Forms
Forms are used to collect different types of information. Unnecessary data transfers contribute to a ballooning environmental impact.
7.8 Interactions
Interactions such as infinite scroll, auto-input and notifications should be replaced or limited in use.
7.9 Documents to be downloaded
Documents to be uploaded or downloaded should be compressed, and several versions could be proposed, as well as a summary.
7.10 Default options
Default options are the most widely used and therefore those with the highest impact. Select them wisely.
6. Choosing your solution: static website or CMS