Sustainability is at the heart of TimeBank, they currently work alongside multiple groups that promote sustainability and additionally cater for events using “ingredients that are sourced to reduce food waste and support sustainable local food production” (TimeBank, 2024).
It is important that the website and marketing plan created for TimeBank continues to follow their current sustainable practices. In this post I will discuss the ways in which sustainable and ethical practices will be applied to TimeBank’s web presence.
Imagery and Illustrations
Whilst it is important to include imagery and illustrations within the website to engage the audience, I will be using vector graphics in TimeBanks website to reduce file size and in turn assist in lower power consumption and data usage when loading.
Typography
For the body typeface of the website, I will be using a system font to ensure that files do not have to be downloaded to user’s computers when the site is loaded.
Social Media
There are ethics to consider when posting on social media as discussed during the research phase. TimeBank will be creating the posts, however, if I can create social media templates that save time when creating a post, TimeBank will have more time to consider that the post itself is adhering to the ethics of an online presence.
Accessibility
An accessibility menu is something that would be helpful to a large number of the population, this was not included in the low-fidelity wireframes but will be applied in the mid/high fidelity prototypes and the TimeBank website.
Inclusion
After spending time on TimeBank’s current website I have concluded that it may be excluding a certain audience due to its use of terminology and topics of sociology. Kate has mentioned that she would like more of a link to solidarity economics but the concern I have is that this will alienate some users rather than what it should do, bring people together. Apple (2024) make useful points in the inclusion section of their design guidelines: “using plain, inclusive language welcomes everyone and helps them understand”, “using specialized or technical terms can make your writing more succinct, but doing so excludes people who don’t know what the terms mean.”
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI)
Having a simple to follow and easily navigable UI can assist in not only the UX but having a more sustainable website. It can reduce time spent on the website as the actions should be easy to carry out. This is something I am considering when creating the menu options and call to actions included in each page.
References
Apple (2024) Design developer inclusion. https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/inclusion [Accessed 4 December 2024].