These articles, written in her own words, are told to Patricia Lane and co-edited with input from the interviewee for the sake of brevity.
Drew Minns makes doing business online more climate-friendly, accessible and profitable. As founder of really good.workDrew and his team design and implement online consumer experiences with the health of our planet in mind.
Tell us about your project.
Most people forget that every email, photo, video, and indeed every piece of data, has to travel through physical equipment and built spaces. Data centers consume a lot of energy. When we focus on improving the consumer experience, it turns out that many standard tools that are supposed to be essential are a huge waste of energy, increase consumption and end up confusing consumers with too much information. An example are those annoying pop-ups that distract and exhaust us when what we really wanted was to buy something. My team goes back to basics like customer-centric design, great graphics, and simple, easy-to-use, well-tested interfaces.
For example, if you use WordPress, every time someone logs into that page, it has to be created from scratch. A minority of sites, such as those that publish emerging news, need to be updated several times a day, so for most businesses, this is overkill. Occasional price or product or service changes can be easily addressed, but in the context of a static site.
Many consumer sites have dozens of images. But offering some options well adapted to consumer preferences generates more sales. Someone wants to buy a striped shirt they see advertised on a social media channel. They go somewhere and find 30 options, including floral shirts, sweaters and shoes, and have to scroll to find the shirt they want. My team designs to help, rather than overwhelm.
Videos may attract, but having to watch them reduces purchases. We prefer some great images to videos and find that well-designed graphics perform even better with much less power usage.
Or the site might require a user with an older phone to wait while it charges, so they leave. We design so that the load responds to the consumer’s disposition.
By using more basic but very well designed images, we conserve energy. We also make the Internet more accessible to those who can’t afford or don’t want the newer, resource-intensive smartphones and computers. And a good design makes it more enjoyable for everyone.
As founder of #ReallyGoodWork, Drew Minns and his team design and implement #online #consumer experiences with the health of our #planet in mind. #youth #climate
How did you become interested in this work?
I grew up on the Internet and understand technology. But like most people, I never thought about the energy I was using. By 2023, Canadians will spend an average of 145 minutes a day on sites like LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram. This energy is equivalent to traveling 545 kilometers a year with a small car. If 35 million people move their data with energy from gas, oil or coal, we pollute a lot. Even if our data centers use clean energy, we can’t afford to waste it. I am the father of a three-year-old boy and I want to be able to tell my son that I did everything I could.
Tell us about your background.
I spent much of my teenage years in southern Ontario playing bass in bands. Word spread that I could design websites and posters. That led him to work after high school in a sign shop and then earn a diploma from Humber College in multimedia design and production. With that ticket and my connections in the music industry, I did digital promotion of artists and events for Universal Studios and taught coding at Humber College. I now work with a collective of creatives and technicians who are obsessed with using basic common sense and good design to do our part to solve this mess.
What keeps you up at night?
We have a lot of ground to cover very quickly. We are faced with a culture that deifies the next shiny thing and discourages us from asking whether we will truly benefit from it. But my generation and those who follow me increasingly want the places where they work to reflect their values. They grew up in extreme weather conditions, floods and fires, and are less seduced by cool and more interested in creating a safe place to live.
How do you think the way you were raised impacted you?
I have a kind father who supports the community. He runs a local food bank in his town of Gravenhurst, Ontario. My mom taught me the value of a purposeful life. She raised us to value experience over greed.
What would you like to say to others who might be wondering how to make a difference?
My generation has experienced many things. A pandemic that was only supposed to happen in movies; multiple economic recessions; There are so many extreme weather events that they are becoming normal. We know about uncertainty. We want to live our lives knowing that we matter. The result of doing nothing is predictable. Doing something will at least let you know that you tried.