How to Achieve a Sustainable Website Design
Welcome back. Today, we are going to discuss ways we can reduce the Internet’s carbon footprint. Below, you’ll find a few ways to create a sustainable web design. If you’re interested in updating your Raleigh web design, contact TigerHive Creative Group with any questions.
A Sustainable Raleigh Web Design Starts With a Professional Web Designer!
Interactive design: According to alistapart.com, “The experience definition phase of design is the perfect time to intercept the more data-hungry site features that threaten a page budget. The ubiquitous carousel is a prime offender—a typical one has three to six big images, plus the JavaScript needed to make it move, typically adding up to hundreds of kilobytes. The value of carousels is debatable anyway; if you need to make a metrics-driven case for reduction or replacement, take the Brad Frost Carousel Challenge. Other candidates for reappraisal include sharing buttons, embedded maps, auto-play video, Flash, ads, and syndicated third-party content services—all of which come with a hefty data overhead.”
Visual design: Images are a large part of web design. We need visual design to create a visually stimulating website. How do we reduce our visual images? To start, you can make sure your images have the correct format. Make sure that they’re properly sized and well optimized. For help, contact TigerHive Creative Group. Our graphic design team can make sure your images are sized properly.
Code design: Our web designers can help with shrinking scripts, compressing downloads, setting appropriate caching times, and combining files. All these things will help reduce data overhead.
Green hosting: Also according to alistapart.com, “Even before you start minimizing your site’s carbon footprint through design and optimization, you could consider moving to a green host. Many of these are powered by renewable energy—particularly in Iceland, where data centers have opened to take advantage of cheap geothermal power. Green hosting might not be for everyone yet (it can be more expensive and Iceland may be too far from your customers), but more local green hosts are starting to appear. Some cloud-based services are getting greener, too: Google, Apple, and Rackspace get some of their power from renewables, though according to Greenpeace, Amazon Web Services does not.”
For more information about sustainable website designs, visit back with us on our next post! If you have any questions about updating your current web design or images, contact TigerHive Creative Group!
