[IxDA Discuss] Does Sustainable Interaction Design Exist?

[Michael Jones]

Google tells me it doesn't. But I'm convinced that there have to be  
certain principles that interaction designers can follow that are  
more environmentally friendly than others. I work at a product design  
company filled with designers looking to develop products that are  
less damaging and more environmentally friendly, but for the most  
part, interaction designers are stuck on the sidelines developing  
interfaces and screens that don't have any of the material or  
manufacturing choices of industrial designers. This has been  
frustrating-- I hate feeling like I'm rearranging deck chairs on the  
Titanic.

Obviously, the most environmentally friendly product we can create is  
no product at all, and often interaction design is better at this  
than industrial design when we are able to turn a product into a  
service. I'm going to go ahead and make a sweeping generalization  
that interaction design is more sustainable than other forms of  
design, but I refuse to believe that our work is done and we simply  
need to keep doing what we're doing. Shouldn't user-centered design  
take into account the user benefits of sustainable design?

Do we resist putting "print" buttons on websites? Do we aim for  
smaller applications because down the road this means less storage  
devices and less electricity used to transport all those bytes?  
Should our sustainable concerns focus on social issues, like the  
social benefits of community software, universal information access,  
and self-empowerment? Should we be building power consumption meters  
into every product's interface?

What are the best practices of sustainable interaction design?

Mike Jones
Interaction Designer
Smart Design