Understanding and Mitigating the Effects of Device and Cloud Service Design Decisions on the Environmental Footprint of Digital Infrastructure

Abstract

Interactive devices and the services they support are reliant on the cloud and the digital infrastructure supporting it. The environmental impacts of this infrastructure are substantial-and for particular services the infrastructure can account for up to 85% of the total impact. In this paper, we apply the principles of Sustainable Interaction Design to cloud services use of the digital infrastructure. We perform a critical analysis of current design practice with regard to interactive services, which we identify as the cornucopian paradigm. We show how user-centered design principles induce environmental impacts in different ways, and combine with technical and business drivers to drive growth of the infrastructure through a reinforcing feedback cycle. We then create a design rubric, substantially extending that of Blevis [6], to cover impacts of the digital infrastructure. In doing so, we engage in design criticism, identifying examples (both actual and potential) of good and bad practice. We then extend this rubric beyond an ecoefficiency paradigm to consider deeper and more radical perspectives on sustainability, and finish with future directions for exploration.

Further Connecting Sustainable Interaction Design with Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Design

“…We relate each conceptual design scenario to specific concepts from SID/SHCI and SDID, chosen from the inventory in the supplemental materials. The complete list of concepts can also be found directly in the two sources [7,39] we identified at the outset, and that is the recommended course for the reader who would like a complete account.…”

“…These issues amount to analytic trends, some well-known and some less well known within HCI. Before we further connect SID and SDID beyond [39], we first describe these three issues that we will later use in part as an additional instrument beyond [7] and [39] for making the connection.…”

“…For example, there is a possibility that a new design or technology provides increased capacity that induces more use, more resource consumption, and more environmental cost. Understanding the links between invention and disposal is an established and ongoing concern of SID/SHCI that underlies much of what is framed in [39]. Notwithstanding, there are other trending issues to also consider.…”

“…The paper advances, builds on, and seeks to help fill in some details of two prior papers in particular, namely "Understanding and Mitigating the Effects of Device and Cloud Service Design Decisions on the Environmental Footprint of Digital Infrastructure" [39] and "Sustainable interaction design: invention & disposal, renewal & reuse" [7]. This paper takes a design criticism perspective, taking up three conceptual design scenarios about three privileged themes, namely (a) finding balance- Figure 1, (b) resistance to technologies that push more consumption- Figure 2, and (c) observing a day of rest- Figure 3.…”

Designing for sustainability: Breakthrough or suboptimisation?

“…the Internet) that makes the device useful. In addition to the costs of charging a device, we should thus also add the costs of running data centers and the computer networks that conveys the data traffic [32,33,34]. In a best-case scenario, OLED screens could reduce the energy consumption of upwards to 90% compared to LCD screens.…”