Interacting with pages and apps on the web – on an average device and network – should be achievable within five seconds. That’s the view of Alex Russell, a browser and performance expert at Microsoft. Building products for cutting edge devices and high speed connections just ignores the vast majority of users.

This view is backed up by his 2024 Performance Inequality Gap report, a vitally important and righteously angry look into the state of web performance, which we think should be required reading for all web professionals.

The report looks at the page weight budgets required to meet this modest target of 5 seconds to interactivity. Russell splits things into two broad categories, Javascript heavy and Markup (CSS and HTML) based. From here, he sets out how light a page or app needs to be to meet this target in real world conditions.

Russell’s  inequality report is a passionate, well argued and vital look into the state of the web today. Taking its advice would go a long way to making the internet a fairer, more performant and less polluting place.

We had the pleasure of meeting Hanna Janssen, author of SCOPES, when she presented her work to the Wholegrain team last year, while she was finalising her thesis. After a year of dedicated research into sustainable web design, Hanna has released SCOPES – a comprehensive template offering guidelines for designers to prioritise energy efficiency when creating websites.

SCOPES originated from Hanna’s desire to explore making energy efficiency the default mode for websites, and integrates best practices and recommendations derived from her extensive research. We love what Hanna refers to as ‘Minimum Lovable Product’ – the most energy efficient version of your digital product after applying the best practices of sustainable web design to your project. We encourage you to check out Hanna’s Figma file, which is packed with insights to help you keep a sustainability-first mindset when designing your sites.

Following the recent hearings with Big Tech CEOs, how can we tell whether each innovation will serve humanity well with technological advancements moving forward at hyper speed? This was the question the Center for Humane Technology (CHT) shared their thinking on in an enlightening webinar.

If you’ve got the time, I encourage you to watch the recording on the CHT YouTube channel. For anyone short on time, I’ve written up a summary of the key points from the webinar as I thought they were too good to be left in the digital wasteland!

I’ve always believed that progress begins with asking good questions. When we ask the right questions, we help ourselves to see new perspectives and uncover new possibilities. I’m therefore very excited by this new book from Q Collective on how to design AI and tech responsibly.

Written by a diverse group of thought leaders with an aim of starting a discussion about how we can create a future in which technology truly improves our lives, this book is exactly what we need at this point in history. 

It’s a book as much about humanity and culture as it is about technology. It takes us back into the past to appreciate how different cultures approached similar problems through their own cultural lenses, and it encourages us to reflect on how our own culture is shaping, and limiting, our approaches to the challenge and opportunity presented by modern technology and AI. 

To top it all off, it’s a tactile thing of beauty that I’ll be keeping on the coffee table and dipping into for many years to come.

– Tom Greenwood, Co-founder of Wholegrain Digital

This quarter, I’m a co-guest editor for Branch issue 8, which sets out to explore the theme Finding beauty in the imperfect. Working alongside Hannah Smith from the Green Web Foundation, our aim for this issue is to make it the most collaborative yet, and we need your help to do so!

As we’ve mentioned before, when it comes to making progress in building a more sustainable tech industry, we must not be held back by perfection paralysis. Some of the green software tools that are openly available aren’t perfect, but they have helped initiate a global movement to make digital more sustainable.

We want to explore a range of narratives on finding beauty in imperfections in the digital world. So, what stories can you share on how tech, however ‘imperfect’, has enabled you to contribute to a more sustainable world at any scale – from your local or online community, to global business?

You don’t need to be a writer to get involved, as there are two ways to be part of this issue – you can submit a quick reflection, or suggest an idea for a full piece. We’ll support you, however you choose to contribute. The deadline for contributions is Tuesday 27th February so you have a week to get involved. We can’t wait to see and share your ideas!

If you’re interested in being part of the Wholegrain Digital team, we’re always happy to hear from individuals dedicated to making a difference in the world via digital sustainability.

If you don’t fit the roles advertised at any time, you’re always welcome to get in touch with the team by replying to this newsletter to learn more about us and explore options in a casual conversation.