Exploring sustainable UX design to reduce the University of Edinburgh’s digital carbon footprint – insights from my first month as a Green Digital Design Intern

About me:

Hi! I’m Chris, a 3rd year Biomedical Sciences undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh. I am the new Green Digital Design Intern working with the UX team, completing my project alongside the Green Web Estate Interns, Osh and Catalina.

You may ask yourself, ‘What is a Biomedical Sciences student doing looking at sustainable web design?’ – trust me, I had the same doubts. But with a keen interest in sustainability and upon reading more into the topic and finding it intriguing, I applied, and here we are!

Our team of 3 we will be pioneering the first research of its kind within the university, questioning: “how do we calculate and what is the carbon footprint of the university’s web presence, and through sustainable UX design choices, how can we reduce them?”.  

My first four weeks have been an exciting journey into the world of sustainable UX design. Here’s a glimpse into my experiences and discoveries: 

Weeks 1-2: Building a foundation

My first two weeks began with immersing myself in sustainable UX practices. This started with compiling comprehensive research base of sustainable design principles, stemming from the W3C standards. I then furthered this by an exploration of case studies from certified eco-conscious web design firms and the consultancy projects that they have worked on.  

‘Miro’ is a new friend I’ve made along the way, where I’ve started creating visual maps of sustainable website designs. Using Google Analytics to understand high traffic webpages, I started my own case studies of University departments, analysing several pages from each.

The initial phase, aside from showing just how vast the University’s web estate is, gave me a strong theoretical grounding and practical insight into how sustainable principles are applied in real-world digital design. 

Weeks 3-4: From Theory to Practice

The second half of June has seen a shift towards more practical applications and stakeholder engagement. I had the opportunity to meet with key university staff to discuss sustainability in relation to their specific department’s online presence. These meetings, aside from being eye-opening, revealed the complexities of balancing website users’ needs with sustainable design practices.  

Particularly, the impact of images on a website’s energy consumption, which lead me to conduct a thorough analysis of image use across University sites. Building on this insight, I began developing a demo website in Edweb2 to highlight more sustainable versions of existing pages.  

This hands-on experience allowed me to apply the principles I had learned, particularly to do with image optimising techniques. Using a variety of online tools, I was able to measure the impact of the changes I had made from a variety of metrics, which clearly demonstrated the potential for energy reduction through an optimised design. 

Key Learnings so far

My intern experience has led me to several key insights so far: 

1. Recognising what the biggest energy consumers are on a given webpage, with images often being the largest burden.  
2. Understanding the importance of balancing sustainability with accessibility in UX design, ensuring eco-friendly choices coincide with user experience.  
3. Noticing how straightforward design optimisations can lead to substantial energy savings ‘mini wins’, often without sacrificing visual appeal. 
4. Recognising the vital importance of stakeholder input in creating effective sustainable digital solutions, as different areas of the University have unique needs and constraints. 

First impressions and looking ahead

Working in Learning, Teaching and Web and the UX team has been an enlightening experience. I’ve been impressed by everybody’s commitment to sustainability and their openness to new ideas. The collaborative environment has also made me feel like my work is making a meaningful contribution.  

As I move into my second month, I aim to build upon the foundations I’ve established. Which will include exploring creative ways to reduce digital carbon footprints. I also plan to continue partnering with various departments and help inform them about steps they can take to be more sustainable.  

I’m excited to continue contributing to the university’s sustainability goals and to the conversation of sustainable web design as a whole.