Almost every organisation across industries is undertaking some sort of digital transformation. This could be as simple as digitising common services, or it could mean a complete overhaul of the entire business to become more agile and digitally savvy. There are numerous benefits to digitising your offline services, from improved efficiency and less risk to reduced costs and happier customers.
At Digital Detox, we think that digital technology and sustainability offers some additional benefits you may not have considered. Here we’ll discuss how, in addition to cost, risk and efficiency, technology can also benefit humanity and maybe even save the planet... Humanity-led digital products Think about the products or services your business offers to its customers.
How does your offering enrich people’s lives? Do your products make life a little easier? What aspect of your service makes people smile? When creating digital products, it’s easy to be swept away in the fanfare of features and intrigue of innovation. We’re going to let you in on a little secret - digital development doesn’t have to be that hard. It’s true; there’s very little that can’t be designed, developed and delivered to your end-users and most third party providers are able to build whatever you need them to. So, why do so many startups fail and why do so many digital experiences fall short?
Usually, in our experience, digital products and services fail when they’re not focused on people. Your clients and end-users are the key to business success. If you don’t truly understand them; their challenges, current pain points, hopes, dreams and favourite cat memes, then how can you ever create a product they’ll love?
The Digital Detox approach At DD, we specialise in strategy, digital transformation, full stack development and design, using technology to solve problems that affect everyday people, regardless of how tech savvy or digitally connected they are. This means we spend a great deal of our time getting to know our clients’ end-users: - What do they want? - What do they need? - Are these the same thing? - What platform would suit them best? Our typical process includes four key stages:
- Discovery
- Ideation
- Design and Development
- Delivery
You’ll notice that design and development aren’t the first, or even second, step. This is because we need to understand why something is needed, before we work out what we’re going to create. Our focus on people extends beyond clients and end-users too. For example, we’re proud of our diverse and dynamic team of 50, representing 15 nationalities and speaking 12 languages. This diversity brings a wealth of experience and culture that translates into a richer end result for our clients. We look after each other and genuinely care about our colleagues and our community, supporting charities and investing our profits into worthy causes.
What about the planet? Everything we do is geared towards doing good; for people and the planet. This might sound like a nice little marketing message, but in fact it’s the very ethos that drives our entire business forward. Digitising offline processes certainly can help the environment by reducing material waste and physical carbon, BUT it’s not a flawless solution. Every digital action produces carbon, and technology is a little known contributor to climate change. Think about it; your laptop needs electricity to charge, Wifi to connect to the internet, your mobile needs a data signal or 5G connection. These are all important considerations that inform our business decisions at Digital Detox.
One of the biggest aspects of our role as a delivery partner for clients, is to help guide them through a more sustainable approach to digital design and development. There are lots of quick wins that every business can make to become more energy efficient. A few quick wins to help the planet Love the planet as much as we do? Here are a few simple actions you can take to reduce your digital carbon footprint:
- Always switch off your laptop when you’re not using it
- Unplug your laptop or phone from the power source once it’s fully charged
- Unsubscribe from unnecessary emails and only send emails when you need to
- Switch off your video on Zoom calls if you don’t need it
- Watch Youtube videos on the lowest resolution setting so they load faster
- Switch off the lights when you leave a room
- Turn down the heating and stick on a jumper instead!
- Incorporate energy efficiency into your design and development process
Ok, the last one is a bit trickier than the rest - how do you become more energy efficient when you’re designing and developing digital products? This is where we can help! We’ll work with you to review your existing processes, systems and ways of working, then put together a list of recommendations on how to make them more sustainable.
We can also support you in implementing and measuring any actions to reduce your digital carbon footprint. Don’t worry if you already have an in-house design and development team, many of our clients do as well, but they bring us in as an extension of their existing structure.
We’ll assimilate to your existing team culture, but will also introduce new ideas and fresh perspectives that the team can continue to implement moving forward.