Glad to see you again for the second part of this article devoted to methods and tools for designing digital products, user centric, ethics and environmentally friendly. 
If you missed the premiere game, here is a little recap. 
Throughout this first part, we have learned how to build the foundations of your project, that is to say the team that will give birth to your product. Then we looked at your economic market and your users. And yes, who says “ethics” says “coordination of different user needs”. We have discussed tools and methods to understand them, and to offer a clear restitution to your teams and your sponsors.   
Finally, we looked at the social and environmental ethics of your project, challenging each of your issues while confronting them with the supposed reality of the field and their impact. The objective was to come up with design challenges – sort of big problems – which will allow you to iterate and imagine many solutions. If you have a bit of time in front of you, I advise you to read it! (I was told it was awesome!). 
Etape #3 Your project translated into an ethical product 
It is at this point in the project that everything materializes. Where your ambitions will be most challenged by your investors. Do not lose sight of your goal and as Vin Diesel says: “If you believe in a project, you must support it”. Until the end. 
# The realization of your product 
 

 
Multiple creativity exercises will allow you to determine the future functionalities of your product. There is no miracle recipe here. You can, as you wish, draw inspiration from the different methods mentioned above. Crazy 8's, card sort, mind mapping, Brainstorming, … Using these tools, your objective will be to generate a maximum of ideas responding to the various design challenges. During these divergence workshops, do not hesitate to immerse yourself in the information acquired in Stage 1.
Recall : the ideal would be to display them on the wall in order to have them under the eyes throughout the realization of the project. 
Let's move on to the convergence of ideas. Once emerged, you can carry out a first sorting thanks to numerous prioritization matrices such as the Concept Selection. The interest is to achieve – at the end of the stage – the MVP (user centric and ethical) of your digital product. It's time to turn your ideas into real features. Using media such as Ideas Capture or Storyboard you will be able to confront your ideas with real design issues. 
At this level, it is highly recommended to meet your users again (if they have not been invited to the various design workshops). This will allow you to observe whether the imagined functionalities correctly meet the needs of the latter. Then re-use the prioritization matrices in order to keep only the essentials. 
# Challenge the ethics of your product and provide solutions 
Let's get to building your product! It is using the Circular Canvas, Product Journey Mapping, brand promised or the famous Blueprint Service that you will approach the multiple facets of your product. Confronting technical, ergonomic, business and ethical realities, this is how it will come to life! 
Your objective will be to “zoom out” each of your product's attributes in order to understand their negative impacts and reduce them.
Of course, all is not rosy. You will find many obstacles on your way. But don't worry: other teams have encountered them before you and we were kind enough to develop tools to overcome them. 
Here is a non-exhaustive list of what can be found on the net : 

• The Biomimicards And the site asknature will allow you to draw inspiration from what is around you to limit your environmental impact. 
• The digital ethics report and the website of Ethics Designers will help you address the principles of social and digital ethics. 
• The sites CCircular Design Guide et Circulab will provide you with the tools and methods necessary for the smooth running of your workshops and deliverables. 

And don't hesitate to take inspiration from the various toolkits and methods available for free. Download and customize them according to the issues of your project. Be the MacGyver of the ethical project! And if it works, let us know. Otherwise try your luck until it takes. 
There you go, your digital user-centric and ethical project has indeed become a desirable, viable and feasible product, ready to see the light of day. In the coming weeks, your mission will be to make your product a reality without distorting it. 
A word of advice, during the development phase of your product, do not hesitate to : 

• establish moments dedicated to ethical issues. They will allow you to raise points of difficulty and identify solutions.
• to meet your users as often as possible, in order to test functionalities and continue to iterate.
• keep an eye on the market but also on technical, social and environmental innovations. Your values ​​are part of constantly changing areas, it would be a shame to miss them.

You now have all the tools in hand to tackle your digital user-centric and ethical project. It is with pleasure that I will meet you again in some time to present other tools allowing you to improve your skills in the design of ethical products. 
To wait, here are some success stories. The entrepreneurs concerned did not necessarily use methods advocating social and environmental ethics. On the other hand, they have launched the same challenge as you. And you know what ? They succeeded !  

Focus: 2 companies that have it all figured out!

1. Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees

 

 
Alternative to the Google search engine, Ecosia offers you an opening to the digital world while respecting a negative carbon footprint, your privacy, as well as total transparency concerning their financial investments.

• But how is it possible ? 

Like all search engines, each of the advertisements related to your searches generate revenue. But at Ecosia, this is directly in the planting of trees in places where they are most needed. Today more than 90 million trees have been planted throughout the world (Spain, Haiti, Indonesia, Tanzania, etc.), notably enabling local populations to revive or maintain their local economies. 

• And how do I know? 

Ecosia publishes their financial reports every month, with one goal: transparency on their activity allowing us to have confidence in them. Thus we observe that in February 2020, the main expenses were used for the planting of trees but also for the financing of a solar power plant (and yes, we forget the coal!), the deposit of savings in ethical banks,... 

• And what are the direct benefits? 

Unlike major search engines, Ecosia guarantees that your search data will not be stored. After one week, all searches are anonymized. Which means that your personal data is not sold to advertisers. Well done! No external tracking tool – such as Google Analytics – is used. Only a limited amount of data is collected. And there again they are strong: since if you do not want Ecosia to have access to the little data still accessible, you can deactivate it in your browser settings. 
Clearly, they have it all.
       2. The NEF, on the way to ethical banking
 

An ethical bank… This may seem paradoxical, but it does exist! I introduce you the nave, a financial cooperative that offers savings and credit solutions geared towards projects with social, ecological and/or cultural utility.
Yes, the site as such does not contribute to the reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere as Ecosia can do. On the other hand, many parallel actions actively contribute to it. 
And yes, the Nef is not just the bank that lets you know where your money actually goes when you save. It also allows you to participate in the financing of many ecological and solidarity transition projects. And this thanks to their crowdfunding platform, Zest. 
Through its actions, the Nef wishes to propose “a sober and transparent offer, based on fair pricing and, above all, which gives meaning to the use of money”. But also to promote an economy that preserves common goods (land, water, air, forests, knowledge, cultures, etc.). All sprinkled with a desire to create social and civic ties! Brilliant. 
Regarding the website, 3 small buttons placed judiciously at the top right, allow access to content and web services by disabled people (visually impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, etc.). This is called web accessibility. 
Accessibility is defined by technical standards established by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These standards must be established throughout the life cycle of a website, by all of its product stakeholders. A follow-up procedure must be put in place to monitor the evolution of the latter. 
 
Small bonus : 
If you want to assess the impact of your website on the planet, you can go to https://www.websitecarbon.com/. This calculator will give you the rate of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.
 
 
 
 
Sandra Oliveira, UX Designer @UX-Republic