Sustainable Design Practices
Seven Best Practices for Websites
Our goal is to connect the dots of good design, satisfy customer expectations, and reduce or eliminate the high energy toll the Internet takes on the environment. To that end, we have come up with seven best practices that serve this purpose.
Basically, we strive to make fast, clean, secure, and effective websites.
Speed
Once you’ve gone to the effort of attracting visitors the next thing that is most important is to retain, engage and convert those visitors, even if it’s something as simple as getting them to read your blog. Your visitors may only wait 1 or 2 seconds for your website to load. If it takes longer than 5 seconds you’re cooked.
If your website loads slowly and visitors leave to other sites you may never be able to share that information with your intended audience. And that would be a shame.
Security
Your hosting company should offer free backup services. This will protect you if your website content and structure is damaged or lost.
Like backups, your hosting provider should offer free SSL security to protect your data, provide authentication and customer trust to your website. SSL also provides you with better SEO ranking because Google likes secure sites.
Content-focused
Ensuring that you have relevant, useful, and usable content that is well structured, and easily found is vital to improving the user experience of a website. Producing compelling and sustainable content means that you need to understand and follow the content lifecycle.
Carbon-neutral
We strive to be as carbon neutral as possible, whether through direct renewable energy or through certified offsets. Currently, our website’s hosting runs on an offset scheme.
However, as we all move to renewable energy we will find and attract new hosting options and share them with you.
Usability
Usability refers to the quality of a user’s experience when interacting with products or systems, including websites, software, devices, or applications. Usability is about effectiveness, efficiency, and the overall satisfaction of the user.
Usability focuses on how easily users can understand and investigate your website to achieve their goals. It also refers to how satisfied users are with that process.
Accessibility
Did you know that over 20% of all people using the Internet will have issues fully accessing the online content they need. Because this number will only increase, it’s important to prepare your site now, rather than later.
The disabilities that need to be considered range from temporary disabilities like a broken limb, lost glasses, bright sunlight or tiredness to more permanent disabilities that can be visual, auditory, cognitive or physical.
Privacy
Why would you need a privacy statement on your website? Well, first of all, it’s the law. If you collect personal information from users you need to make a privacy policy available.
Having a privacy policy also helps to build trust as well. Because your visitors know you won’t sell or trade their personal information they will feel more comfortable browsing your site. It also helps to prevent lawsuits.
Focused ~ Fast ~ Forever