"I've spent over two decades in the trenches of user experience design. I remember the transition from table-based layouts to CSS, the pivot to responsive design when the iPhone launched, and the rise of the "attention economy." But as we navigate 2026, the industry is facing its most significant shift yet. We are moving past the era of "design at any cost" into the era of Sustainable UX."
"For years, we have treated the internet as an ethereal, weightless cloud. We have assumed that digital products were "green" simply because they weren't printed on paper. I used to think that too, and before the concept of climate change emerged, it was more about saving trees. We were wrong. The cloud is a physical infrastructure, a sprawling network of data centres, undersea cables, and cooling systems that hum 24⁄ 7."
"While AI-focused data centers match the power consumption of massive aluminum smelters, their high geographic density creates an even more intense and localised environmental strain. As UX designers, we are the architects of this energy consumption. Every high-resolution hero image, every auto-playing background video, and every complex JavaScript animation we approve is a direct instruction to a processor to consume power. If we want to build a future that lasts, we must stop designing for "wow" and start designing for efficiency."
Sustainable UX reframes performance as responsibility and prioritizes reducing product energy and bandwidth footprints. Historical shifts in UX include moving from table-based layouts to CSS, the rise of responsive design after the iPhone, and the emergence of the attention economy. The internet operates on physical infrastructure—data centres, undersea cables, and cooling systems—that run continuously. AI-focused data centres can consume energy comparable to large industrial sites and create localized environmental strain. Designers directly influence this consumption through choices like high-resolution images, autoplay videos, and heavy animations. Design should favor efficiency and reduced impact rather than adding features for spectacle.
Read at Smashing Magazine
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