Aug 13, 2019
See Full Show Notes here: https://growensemble.com/sustainable-ux-james-christie
SustainableUX Founder James Christie works as director of user experience at Mad*Pow, which partners with the likes of inspiring companies like Cigna Health and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to make their interaction with clients more inclusive and accessible.
But as he started tapping more and more into his internal drive for purpose, he knew he sought more of it than what he was getting there. Yes, he enjoyed teaming up with fantastic nonprofit partners, but wasn’t as into collaborating with other clients driven by the bottom line. He wanted to make more of a positive impact.
And he was increasingly scared by how quickly climate change was intensifying.
“In software, I can help, but it’s not going to do you much good if the world’s on fire,” he says. “I began feeling increasingly irrelevant against that backdrop.” He began looking more deeply into the effects of his personal and professional carbon footprint, and how to measure digital impacts.
“What became more urgent was climate change,” he adds. “It’s become increasingly scary for me, as it has for many.” That led him to create, in a very hands-on and grassroots way, the SustainableUX Conference, to dig deep into how our ubiquitous digital habits affect energy use, pollution and more. He is also an active presenter (and writer) on topics including responsive design; in addition to SustainableUX, he has shared his research at South by Southwest (SxSW), IA Summit, UXPA International and UX Scotland.
He and his small volunteer team hoped the first SustainableUX would attract 40 visitors. It drew 400. Year two, 1,300 attended online, with hundreds watching presentations after the fact, absorbing insight into everything from green web-hosting to biomimicry in design.