Lessons from Buy Now!

Written by Andy Davies - November 29, 2024

Happy Black Friday!

To prepare ourselves for the most wonderful, consumption driven time of the year, my wife and I watched Buy Now on Netflix last night.

Not so much Netflix’n’chill as Netflix’n’seethe.

As efforts to decarbonise our economy and society continue to gather momentum (perhaps in spite of COP29), the film provides a reminder that overconsumption is a parallel issue in need of tackling. From a web designer’s point of view the core messages from the film are stark: 

  • Overconsumption for the sake of profit is rife in the developed world
  • Planned obsolescence in tech and throw-away fashion encourages dangerous consumption
  • The developing world is drowning in waste from the developed world 
  • Websites, digital platforms and highly effective UX all contribute to this problem

In this time of climate crisis, the web design industry needs to take note of these issues and act accordingly. 

The birth of frictionless UX

The opening section of the film features the early days of Amazon.com and Maren Costa, Amazon’s first Principal User Experience Designer. In the early days, Amazon focused its efforts on making purchasing on the site as simple and efficient as possible. Millions of experiments and data points were analysed to not only remove friction in the process, but to actively encourage people to buy, even if they were just browsing. The lessons learned at Amazon have since been replicated and refined across the internet.

But it’s not just the UX patterns and methodologies that have been honed. Website and digital platform messaging and SEO techniques have helped spread messages encouraging unchecked consumption and greenwashing far and wide.

The message to me was clear. The sad truth is that the craft of our industry is part of the problem and that web design agencies (including B Corps) help encourage excessive consumption.

Just as every job is a climate job, every website can be a climate website. Website messaging and UX is a powerful message delivery system. We know this to be true and sell that vision to clients in every project we undertake. Using the most effective methods to spread information about the climate crisis, alternative business models and customer solutions can help turn the tide. 

What can web designers, marketers and agencies do?

Given that we are discussing consumption, e-commerce is the obvious place to start. Committing to putting choice back in the hands of the user and removing consumption-encouraging nudges can help change the psychology of purchasing. Instead, let’s support purchasing choices with transparency. Clearly showing the materials, provenance, supply chain, life cycle analysis, end of life options, resale value and communities supported gives users the power to make more informed decisions. Northern Playground, a brand I’ve written about recently, do this brilliantly.

Similarly, it seems to me that some friction could be added back into the process to help respect users and the planet. One click purchase journeys feature heavily in the film. Removing those easy options and developing more conscientious UX patterns, giving users space and agency to make purchasing decisions is the ethical thing to do. Perhaps more controversially, I would advocate for removing services like Klarna to discourage unaffordable consumption and debt. 

Showcase the alternatives

Something else I’ve noted is the priority (or lack thereof) alternative business models are given by brands. Brands like Mud Jeans have prominent rental and take back schemes on their websites. Other brands with similar schemes hide these options away. Giving equal or higher positioning for circular products helps show users that alternatives to liner consumption are available.

Talk about it!

Over and above the tech solutions are the human connection solutions. A theme from the film is people having realisations that their day to day work is harming the planet and recognising that nobody is talking about it. Maren at Amazon built an employee climate justice programme which forced Jeff Bezos to at least acknowledge the problem. Nirav Patel’s recognition that the products he was designing for Facebook and Apple lead to discussions about how to do things better. As a result, Framework was born, providing computers built with repairability and end of life in mind.

Talking to friends and colleagues about the climate crisis and how it affects your personal and professional life might be the most important action you could take. Holding space for this enables discussions to take place. It’s something we’re doing at Wholegrain. Hopeful conversations and sharing of ideas might just be the thing that helps save the world.

If you’ve watched Buy Now, let me know what you think. – [email protected].