Risks and Requirements in Sustainable App Development—A Review

Abstract

Apps are a part of the everyday lives of many people around the world. Digital applications support many areas, including the private sphere and the working world. To strengthen social sustainability in app development, it is necessary to consider users’ needs. The aim of this paper is to identify users’ requirements and to explore possible concerns. Furthermore, we aim to investigate how sustainability can be integrated into app development. For this purpose, 25 studies were analyzed, in which users were interviewed. The papers were qualitatively evaluated. Our results reveal three main findings. First, specific requirements, such as value for monetary aspects, security, and privacy, play a crucial role for users. Second, users expressed concerns about the attractiveness, motivation, and accuracy of apps. Third, an absolute research gap was revealed in the integration of sustainability in app development. Based on the findings, the Sustainable App Development Model (SADM) was then developed. This model incorporates the most fundamental aspects of social, economic, and environmental sustainability and is characterized by a circular approach to app development.

Live and Let Die - Battle Stories of Gamified Sustainable Consumption App Creators

“…Regarding the origin of the apps and the creators' backgrounds (SQ1, SQ2), the patterns identified through the typologies point to the flexibility to adjust the apps' business models rather than the professional background as a critical success factor. This flexibility is largely the result of the work of multidisciplinary teams that allow a sufficient diversification of tasks to respond to the users' and other stakeholders demands and their feedback (Hunger et al, 2023). This situation leads the creators to confront quantitative trade-offs, mainly when engaging with the business sustainability decision-making processes (Benkert, 2021).…”

“…It is also documented how the app creators’ woes lie mainly on the business side rather than the technical one (Szczepański, 2018). However, most of the existing literature about gamified SCAs explore their design processes (Hunger et al, 2023; Mulcahy et al, 2020), applications (Douglas & Brauer, 2021; Whittaker et al, 2021), and gamification characteristics (Guillen M. et al, 2022; Huber & Hilty, 2015; Johnson et al, 2017) leaving unanswered the questions of how SCAs operate to ensure their survival and eventual accomplishment of their goals, and what were the creators’ considerations to implement gamification as part of their business value proposition.…”