Sustainable consumption for all
A healthy environment in which people can live as far as possible protected from harmful environmental impacts such as pollutants in the air or water: This is the major concern of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Germany's central environmental authority.
In order to strengthen consumer information and education in the area of sustainable consumption and to make the impact of individual measures more tangible, the UBA offers a range of services on its website. Through user research, we have analysed three of them as examples and developed suggestions for improvement - so that the topic of "sustainable consumption" reaches people even better.
Desired: Content for the brain and heart
To offer content that reaches and appeals directly to consumers: The Federal Environment Agency approached our strategy, design and editorial team with this request. We therefore scrutinised three of the existing offerings as examples.
How do the Co2 calculator, the consumption think tank and the consumer tips present themselves? How could marketing, user-friendliness/UX, SEO and reach be improved, and what tips could be given to the UBA editorial team to ensure better long-term support?
Communication with vision
As the optimisations are implemented successively at UBA internally and/or with other service providers, it was important from the outset to prepare all steps in a way that was easy to understand. We therefore paid particular attention to passing on our recommendations for action in an understandable, customisable and clear form.
From analysis to concrete implementation steps
In order to be able to make as many varied recommendations as possible, we also included best practices and potential improvements. The resulting recommendations also take into account target group-specific user needs and the respective context of use.
As our short reports each contain the derivation of the recommendations for action, the resulting profiles of measures sharpen the focus on practical steps for implementation in a way that is easy to understand.
Sketchy prototypes create an additional level of understanding: They clarify content, operating elements and recommended functions and can also serve as design templates.
The use of such design templates for the digital Co2 calculator was exemplary: we developed a style guide for it that sets guidelines for the use of all design elements, the typography used and the colours - a consistent design can thus be maintained even with future extensions and adaptations.
Good content for modern design
Target group-oriented web communication, optimal user experience and search engine optimisation that makes the most of the Federal Environment Agency's excellent ranking - these and other editorial elements should contribute to successful digital communication in future, alongside functionality and design.
In addition to recommendations and suggestions, an additional training course for the Federal Environment Agency's public relations/communications staff therefore served as the starting point for subsequent implementation. Together with a "Writing for the web" handout tailored to the needs of the UBA, this will also enable consistency in the future maintenance of UBA content in the editorial area.