Don't Overlook UX When Building Green Material Selection Tools
We're all trying to make more sustainable choices these days, from the food we eat to the buildings we construct. For architects, contractors, and property developers, selecting eco-friendly building materials is a crucial part of minimizing environmental impact.
That's why many companies are developing digital tools to help guide professionals toward green material selections. However, in the race to get these products to market, user experience (UX) is sometimes an afterthought. This can be a costly mistake that undermines the tools' adoption and effectiveness.
As a UX researcher, I've seen first-hand how unintuitive or cumbersome interfaces can cause frustration, erode trust in the product, and lead users to abandon it entirely. When it comes to sustainable building, the stakes are too high to ignore good UX. We need these green material selection tools to be as usable and delightful as possible.
So, what can product teams do to optimize the user experience? Here are some recommendations based on UX best practices:
Observe your target users in their natural work environments through contextual inquiries and ethnographic studies. Seeing how architects, contractors, and developers currently research and select materials can reveal valuable insights to inform your tool's design.
Build low-fidelity prototypes and iterate based on usability testing. Putting rough designs in front of users early allows you to catch and fix UX issues before they get baked into the final product.
Conduct tree testing to optimize your tool's information architecture and navigation flows. With sustainable materials having so many variables, findability will be key.
Use desirability studies to gauge user attitudes, perceived credibility, and emotional resonance with your product's aesthetics and branding. Environmental products need to inspire trust.
Embrace a human-centered design process with regular user validation at every stage. Prioritize UX alongside functionality and eco-benefits rather than tacking it on at the end.
The construction industry has been slow to adopt user-friendly digital tools. Green material selection products have an opportunity to buck that trend by delivering an exceptional user experience along with vital sustainability data. A tool that's both eco-conscious and user-conscious? Now that's a formula for success.
