Evaluating Sustainable Interaction Design of Digital Services

Abstract

Recent research has advocated for a broader conception of evaluation for Sustainable HCI (SHCI), using interdisciplinary insights and methods. In this paper, we put this into practice to conduct an evaluation of Sustainable Interaction Design (SID) of digital services. We explore how SID can contribute to corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction strategies. We show how a Digital Service Provider (DSP) might incorporate SID into their design process and quantitatively evaluate a specific SID intervention by combining user analytics data with environmental life cycle assessment. We illustrate this by considering YouTube. Replacing user analytics data with aggregate estimates from publicly available sources, we estimate emissions associated with the deployment of YouTube to be approximately 10MtCO 2 e p.a. We estimate emissions reductions enabled through the use of an SID intervention from prior literature to be approximately 300KtCO 2 e p.a., and demonstrate that this is significant when considered alongside other emissions reduction interventions used by DSPs. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → HCI design and evaluation methods; • Social and professional topics → Sustainability;

Moving academic conferences online: Aids and barriers to delegate participation

“…The online meeting itself likely imposed some carbon costs, in terms of the computing infrastructure necessary to support the meeting (running a website for two months) and connect the 480 delegates and enable them to watch a total of 160 min of YouTube video and participate in 3 hr of Zoom networking. Our engagement data did not permit us to accurately calculate how long each delegate spent engaged in each activity, nor indicate what equipment they were viewing on (mobile/desktop/screen type/viewing resolution), nor their connection method (mobile, Wi‐Fi, or fixed line), all of which are critical determinants of energy consumption (Preist et al., 2019). Therefore, an accurate calculation of the carbon footprint of our meeting is beyond the scope of this paper, but we applied a calculation based on 2011 technologies to determine the carbon outputs of streaming video (Shehabi et al., 2014).…”

“…Our engagement data did not permit us to accurately calculate how long each delegate spent engaged in each activity, nor indicate what equipment they were viewing on (mobile/desktop/screen type/viewing resolution), nor their connection method (mobile, Wi-Fi, or fixed line), F I G U R E 1 Showing the plans to convert the in-person conference into an online conference. The text in black boxes shows the technology that we chose in order to achieve these aims all of which are critical determinants of energy consumption (Preist et al, 2019). Therefore, an accurate calculation of the carbon footprint of our meeting is beyond the scope of this paper, but we applied a calculation based on 2011 technologies to determine the carbon outputs of streaming video (Shehabi et al, 2014).…”

Live-streaming at international academic conferences: Technical and organizational options for single- and multiple-location formats

“…Consider now the emissions from internet-based audiovisual (AV) communication. YouTube (currently the most popular platform) is emitting approximately 10 million tonnes of CO 2 equivalent per year, while being watched for 1 billion hours per day (Preist et al, (2019). If on one day 27,000 tonnes CO 2 equivalent are emitted while videos are watched for 1 billion hours, one video produces 27 g CO 2 per hour, or about 7 g carbon.…”

Digital transformation—life cycle assessment of digital services, multifunctional devices and cloud computing

“…These new providers encourage media consumption on the move, through the provision of short videos which can be engaged with quickly. As a result, they are accessed far more often over mobile services, and so, mobile network equipment is a significant hotspot (Preist et al, 2019). It has been commonly argued that the overall energy use and carbon footprint of digital technology globally is significant and roughly comparable in size to that of the aviation industry.…”