Web sustainability

We have been building fully-accessible websites for decades. And we embraced UX, Agile, etc. early on. But now a new standard is emerging that combines all our favorite practices.

The standard is Web Sustainability.

A draft of the Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) went online recently. These guidelines provide a comprehensive checklist of what to do to create a sustainable, “craft code” web application. They are split into four categories:

• UX Design
• Web Development
• Hosting, Infrastructure, and Systems
• Business Strategy and Product Management

Thatʼs a lot! Our recommendation: do it right the first time, then re-use, re-use, re-use. Why reinvent the wheel?

We provide convenient checklists that we put together for our own efforts:

• UX Design Checklist
• Web Development Checklist
• Hosting, Infrastructure, and Systems Checklist
• Business Strategy and Product Management Checklist

These remain a work in progress, so keep that in mind. Suggestions welcome.

Sustainability resources

Here are a few links to help you get started with craft coding:

• Sustainable web design strategies
• Ecograder sustainability tester
• The Web Sustainability Pocket Guide
• The intro guide to digital eco-design
• Handbook of sustainable design of digital services
• Green Web Check
• How web content can affect power usage
• Bundlephobia
• The 8 goals of universal design
• How designers are using UX for evil
• Understanding the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• axe DevTols and WebAIM
• The Nielsen Norman Group (UX)

Much more on the way.