The Brief
Envirowise was a government-funded programme that offered UK businesses support in being more environmentally friendly. This included giving advice on practical ways to increase profits, minimise waste, and reduce environmental impact.
One of their key topics was Eco-Design, which is an approach to design that aims to improve the environmental impact through the whole life-cycle of a project, with suggestions like using cleaner technology, and more sustainable materials for packaging. Envirowise asked us to create an application that shared knowledge about eco-design with the UK design community.
The Process
Our Eco-Design Story app is based around four video case studies. Envirowise chose these as best-practice examples of organisations that have adopted eco-design to benefit both the environment and their own business.
Each video features the companies explaining in their own words why their environmental choices made good business sense. We filmed and edited all the videos ourselves, and presented them on the site alongside image galleries.
We designed the app around an illustrated natural theme as we wanted to deliver the important information in a fun and engaging way. We also made sure the design was contemporary and visually stimulating, as it had to appeal to our fellow designers who made up the target audience.
The Results
The final result was an attractive and fun-to-use web app, that provided accessible and interesting messages on an important subject. Eco-Design Stories sat within the Envirowise main site and was one of the most popular free tools. The Envirowise program ended in March 2011, but much of the information and guidance is still available to businesses.