Passion for building a greener future translates into people’s daily lives, including the way designers work and create new projects. You might wonder how eco-consciousness and sustainable design trends translate into things like website creation. You might be surprised to learn there are many factors, including earth-toned color palettes that come into play.
In the last few years, society is more aware of the impact of human actions on the environment. Many industries embrace eco-friendly practices, including digital designs. Researchers predict the green technology and sustainability market is worth $61.06 billion and will hit $417.35 billion by 2030.
Some of the more obvious trends involve energy usage, but there are many ways the web design industry might shape a more eco-friendly digital experience. Here are some sustainable design trends we think will stand the test of time.
1. Minimalism
Since the beginning of time, people stuck to simple, clean lines in design. Even before there was a name for it, minimalism was popular in many circles. The concept of less is more works well when it comes to sustainable design trends.
With fewer bells and whistles, you’ll also design a site or app that requires less resources to run. You’ll also improve the user experience with plenty of white space and clean layouts. Because there is less data to transfer, you’ll reduce your carbon footprint with website hosting and energy consumption.
2. Sustainable Gift Cards/Payments
Decades ago, people wrote checks or processed credit card payments on paper. Today, most payments are digital. You can continue this tradition by utilizing sustainable gift cards and taking payments with digital cash, cash apps and digital credit card processing.
For gift cards, let your clients know they’re being eco-friendly by choosing your company to buy gift cards from. Around 65% of consumers want to buy from brands promoting sustainability. You can even tie into environmental protection with the design of the digital card and the image you put on it.
3. Optimized Performance
Improve browsing efficiency by making sure your site loads at lightning speeds. Part of the equation is limiting the number of features on your website. Websites that load slowly frustrate your users but they can also contribute to higher carbon emissions by using more energy as the machine runs waiting for the site to load fully.
Work into your design habits such as optimizing code and compressing images. If your web hosting server offers image caching, take advantage of it as repeat visitors will already have images stores and can load the site faster than they can blink.
When you reduce page load times and use caching, you reduce the amount of transferred data. Create an optimized site that is both user-friendly and energy-efficient.
4. Earth Tones and Warm Colors
You can show your love for the earth by using colors from nature. Warm tones and earthy browns and greens all come together to create a site that lets users know the environment is important to your brand. The impression the look of your site gives backs up your commitment to be more eco-friendly.
Sustainable design trends do often look at the function of a site, but you can expand this to the aesthetics as well. Warm colors are welcoming. If people feel comfortable on your site, they may not look for a competitor, which reduces their carbon footprint from browsing for long minutes.
5. Sustainable Hosting and Data Centers
If you’re able to choose the hosting platform for your design, look for a company that strives to hit zero carbon emissions. Such data centers often utilize alternative energy sources, such as solar panels for power and reuse computers rather than constantly buying new and throwing old ones into a landfill.
Make sure their commitment to the environment matches your own. Suppliers can undo all the good work and effort you put forward if you don’t watch their policies and practices.
Sustainable Design Trends Growing in Popularity
Living in the digital age means we use electronic devices more frequently than ever before. Online activities impact our carbon footprint, but when designers commit to sustainable design trends, energy usage decreases. We can all work together for a greener future.
