CHI 2007 Proceedings • Design Theory April 28-May 3, 2007 • San Jose, CA, USA

Sustainable Interaction Design:

Invention & Disposal, Renewal & Reuse
Eli Blevis
School of Informatics,
Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana USA
eblevis@indiana.edu
ABSTRACT important design authors—principally by Tony Fry’s [14]
This paper presents the perspective that sustainability can and notion of defuturing in his book “A New Design Philosophy:
should be a central focus of interaction design—a perspective An Introduction to Defuturing” and as well by Willis’ [47]
that is termed Sustainable Interaction Design (SID). As a notion of ontological designing, which itself owes to
starting point for a perspective of sustainability, design is Winograd & Flores’ [49] “Understanding Computers and
defined as an act of choosing among or informing choices of Cognition: A New Foundation for Design” as well as to
future ways of being. This perspective of sustainability is Heidegger’s [18] essay “The Question concerning
presented in terms of design values, methods, and reasoning. technology”. Alexander’s [1] recent work on structure-
The paper proposes (i) a rubric for understanding the material preserving transformations is also an inspiration. This
effects of particular interaction design cases in terms of forms definition of design from the perspective of sustainability
of use, reuse, and disposal, and (ii) several principles to guide serves as a lens through which design values, design
SID. The paper illustrates—with particular examples of methods, and designs themselves may be evaluated,
design critique for interactive products and appeals to especially in the context of interaction design.
secondary research—how two of these principles may be
Sustainability as a notion of viable futures can be defined to
applied to move the effects of designs from less preferred
include aspects of the environment, public health, social
forms of use to more preferred ones. Finally, a vision for
equality and justice, as well as other conditions and choices
incorporating sustainability into the research and practice of
about humanity and the biosphere [14]. In what follows, the
interaction design is described.
focus is primarily on environmental sustainability and the
Author Keywords link between interactive technologies and the use of
Sustainability, design, interaction design. resources, both from the point of view of how interactive
technologies can be used to promote more sustainable
ACM Classification Keywords behaviors and—with more emphasis here—from the point of
H5.m. [Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI)]: view of how sustainability can be applied as a critical lens to
Miscellaneous. J.7. [Computers in other systems]: Consumer the design of interactive systems, themselves.
products. K.1. [The Computer Industry]: Markets. K.4.m. In addition to proposing this perspective of sustainability, I
[Computers and society]: Miscellaneous. propose a rubric for understanding and assessing the material
effects induced by particular interaction design cases in terms
INTRODUCTION
of forms of use, reuse, and disposal from the perspective of
In this paper, I claim that sustainability can and should be a
sustainability. The items of the rubric are disposal, salvage,
central focus of interaction design—a perspective that I call
recycling, remanufacturing for reuse, reuse as is, achieving
Sustainable Interaction Design (SID). I propose several
longevity of use, sharing for maximal use, achieving
aspects of a framing for a research program and methodology
heirloom status, finding wholesome alternatives to use, and
germane to this way of thinking about interaction design—a
active repair of misuse. The important claim is that software
way of thinking that is critical for our collective futures. The
and hardware are intimately connected to a cycle of mutual
vision—design—for this future concerns defining
obsolescence with implications for the environmental
sustainability as a core semantics for interaction design. As a
sustainability and other sustainability effects and modes of
starting point for a perspective of sustainability, I define
use enumerated by the rubric.
design as an act of choosing among or informing choices of
future ways of being, a definition which is inspired by several Several principles can serve as goals for SID of which two
are discussed in detail in this paper, namely (i) linking
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for invention & disposal—by which I mean the idea that any
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are design of new objects or systems with embedded materials of
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies
bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise,
information technologies is incomplete without a
or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior corresponding account of what will become of the objects or
specific permission and/or a fee. systems that are displaced or obsoleted by such inventions,
CHI 2007, April 28–May 3, 2007, San Jose, California, USA. (ii) promoting renewal & reuse—by which I mean the idea
Copyright 2007 ACM 978-1-59593-593-9/07/0004...$5.00.

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CHI 2007 Proceedings • Design Theory April 28-May 3, 2007 • San Jose, CA, USA

that the design of objects or systems with embedded moral and political) commitments they embody, and what
materials of information technologies implies the need to first kinds of models they reflect.”
and foremost consider the possibilities for renewal & reuse of It also needs to be said that the HCI community is one which
existing objects or systems from the perspective of has proved itself to be receptive to new ideas and multi-
sustainability. disciplinary discourse—designerly perspective is more and
There are three additional principles that I will describe in more available at CHI, beginning perhaps with one of the
less detail here, but which have import for achieving the first first such papers by Fallman [8]. Nonetheless, the skills
two, namely (iii) promoting quality & equality—by which I associated with expertise in HCI are hard won and technical
mean the idea that the design of new objects or systems with at their foundation, creating a context for the HCI community
embedded materials of information technologies implies the that oftentimes seems apart from other design disciplines and
need to consider quality as a construct of affect and longevity that oftentimes seems to see itself and to be seen by its clients
and quality in the sense of anticipating means of renewal & as a service provider of product elements of “user”
reuse, thereby motivating the prolonged value of such objects experience and usability. Both the difficulty of setting
or systems and providing equality of experience to new sustainability as a focus within such a landscape and the
owners of such objects and systems whenever ownership somewhat challenging prescription for actually doing so are
transfers, (iv) de-coupling ownership & identity—by which I expressed passionately for the case of the design disciplines
mean the idea that the virtual world has irrevocably changed in general by Tony Fry [14] as follows: “Currently industry
the way in which ownership of information and in particular […] is still overwhelmingly deaf to those voices that speak of
ownership of personal identity are constructed and secured the complexity of un-sustainability, the poverty of current
and that alternative notions of ownership and identity have responses to it, the misplaced faith in technological solutions,
design implications for sharing materials, intellectual the myopia of present political and corporate leadership and
commons, and sense of self-hood which must be considered the extent of changes that are required if a psychology,
as part of sustainable design of interactions with digital culture and economy of sustainment are to ever arrive.
artifice, and (v) using natural models & reflection—by which This deafness also extends to the mass of the design
I mean the prospect that there may be an approach to community. In this situation, there are no passive or neutral
interaction design—even by the design of its removal—that positions. Service providers who timidly subordinate
prompts sustainable relationships to nature and that SID themselves to the will of clients who trade in the
begins with a reflection on this principle of making the world unsustainable are enemies of viable futures. This is not to say
of the artificial more like the natural world with respect to that designers should commit economic suicide—it is to say
sustainability. These principles are not intended to be that they need to learn (a) how to design in a far more
exhaustive—rather, they represent an initial focus and an complex and critical frame, while developing a language of
intuition about some of what is important in order to set engagement with the ability to constitute dialogues of
sustainability as the focus in the context of interaction design. transformation with ‘clients’ or communities and (b) how to
develop new and economically workable path finding and
Situating SID as a focus within HCI requires some reflection. service practices.”
The very title Human-Computer Interaction has embedded Put another way, the challenge is to learn how to set
within it meanings which are problematic from the sustainability as a focus of interaction design in a manner that
perspectives of sustainability—it is anthropocentric, and even can succeed by widely motivating the will for sustainable
if the anthropocentrism was not in-and-of-itself a condition behaviors as part of an economically-viable viable future,
of ontological blindness, the sense of human-centeredness in rather than by expecting such effects to be solely the
the HCI context is oftentimes construed as a notion of dominion of legislation and public policy. Fry’s statement
method in which engineering “needs and requirements” acknowledges the value tensions between sustainability goals
follow from cognitive models of “users,” rather than a and those of enterprise, while prescribing an ethical
concern for human conditions, particular or global. There are imperative for designers to confront such tensions with a
notable exceptions to this “needs and requirements” “language of engagement” which advances the case for
construction of human-centeredness within the HCI sustainability.
literature, which include as only a partial list writings by
Friedman and others [10-13], Kling & Starr [20], Nardi & Nicolas Makelberge [25] has also written about what may be
O’Day [29], Muller & Wharton [28], and Winograd & Flores characterized as a sense of ennui surrounding the failure of
[49]. Writing about the larger importance of ethnography in technology-centered thought within HCI to explain the role
HCI, Paul Dourish [8] provides the following insight: “What of interaction design in an ontological sense of designing and
matters is not simply what those implications [for design being designed in the world. In Makelberge’s writing, this
needs and requirements] are; what matters is why and how sense is especially strong apropos of the notion within the
they were arrived at, and what kinds of intellectual (and HCI community of ubiquitous computing as an agenda of
material improvement—an agenda which demands reflection

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in terms of issues of quality of life: “As the ‘less evolved’ an aesthetic of well-cared-for systems.” That same reviewer
[Native American] of the 18th century North America much suggested that understanding the role of technology in such
better understood how his consumption impacted on his ambitions for cultural change is key—an understanding
surrounding, we now ‘more evolved’ stand clueless. If he was which this paper modestly frames as important research for
in the need of meat, he had had to kill a buffalo. Today when the larger community of HCI and interaction design.
we get a car, the global economy has taken us far from the In the context of design in general, sustainability has wider
real impact and consequences of our decision. The gasoline, treatment. The journal Design Philosophy Papers is devoted
the plastics, the rubber, the fabrics that go into making and to issues of sustainability and design. Tony Fry [14]
maintaining a car is not derived from our backyards where introduces and defines notions of defuturing—by which he
we can see the direct consequences of our decision. They are means that the unintended effects of design, even well-
derived from some place else, often poorer nations with little intentioned, can alter our collective futures in undesirable
chance to raise their voice or organize themselves politically. ways. He as well defines the terms futuring, sustainability,
It's often their backyard and therefore problem. Billions of and un-sustainability as the basic tools for philosophical
people on this planet consume junk with no apparent clue on discourse about sustainable design. In his recent work,
how it affects someone else’s surroundings.” Christopher Alexander [1] describes the notion of structure-
In an editorial description of Makelberge’s essay, Anne- preserving transformations, by which he means the ideal of
Marie Willis [48] describes Makelberge’s insights as the designer to preserve old things in the construction of new
originating “from the inside of this [HCI] outside”—where ones, just as nature does—one of the examples he gives is
by “outside”, she means to include the notion that HCI as a that the fern that becomes a tree contains the original fern.
discipline has not yet understood sustainability to be a central Alexander’s treatment of the relationship between nature and
design ideal. This present paper is a tableau for working out artifice is a counterpoint to Simon’s [40] treatment of the
the problems implied by these insights, in order to open the topic. More generally, the need to understand design in a
possibility that notions of sustainability can be adopted in a values-rich way is central to many design writers including
meaningful way—indeed, a sustainable way—by the larger Cross [7], Löwgren & Stolterman [23], Margolin [26,27],
outside community of informatics. Nelson & Stolterman [30], Papanek [35], Schön [38], Stegall
Notions of sustainability and design are common— [41], and Thackara [42], and this list is by no means
nonetheless, there is little written specifically about complete.
sustainability and interaction design in the main corpus of the
SUSTAINABLE INTERACTION DESIGN
HCI literature—the Association for Computing Machinery’s In this section, SID is presented from the perspectives of a
(ACM) digital library in particular—and concern for general framework for describing notions of design in terms
sustainability in the arena of interaction design is in an of design values, methods, and reasoning [3]. As well, I
apparent infancy. Environmental sustainability has been propose some open research questions for SID.
identified as a human value that is implicated in system
design in Friedman, Kahn, & Borning [10]. There is much Values
that deals with values and value tensions, specifically Value From the perspective of design values, design may be defined
Sensitive Design (VSD) by Friedman and others [10-13]. It is as an act of choosing among or informing choices of future
possible to consider SID to be situated as a concern within ways of being. There are much more common notions of
this established area of HCI. We might also include Kling & design values, which include all notions of what design can
Star [19] as a contribution to the notion of values-oriented be construed to be about—from (a) the most common and
design of technologies. A workshop was held on this topic at banal view that design is about acts of decoration, to (b) the
the 1997 CHI conference [28]. Another workshop on the view that design is about the valuation of particular objects
social implications of ubiquitous computing occurred at the themselves, to (c) the view that design is about features and
2005 CHI conference [6]. The DPPI conferences included functions of objects, to (d) the view that design is about
work on this theme by Reed, Wang, & Blevis [37] and affordances of objects (see Norman [32] and Gibson [16]), to
Woolley [50]. In Blevis et al. [4], environmental decision (e) the view that design is about affective aspects of objects
making is used as the content matter for investigating (see Norman [31]), to (f) the view that design is about
interactivity. As a sign of the importance of this perspective interactions between people and objects, to (g) the view that
of sustainability and emergent interest in it, this claim has design is about interactions between people and
now been echoed in a proposed special interest group environments, to (h) the view that design is about whole
meeting at this conference [24] which references this paper as ecologies of people and environments (see Nardi [29]), to (i)
well as [2]. One of the reviewers of this paper provided the the present view that design is about choices that lead to
following very insightful summary statement of much of its sustainable futures (after Fry [14]).
spirit: “sustainability [should be] more than just recycling,
It would be politic to claim that all of these notions of design
and indeed [must become] a cultural paradigm shift away
values are equally valid and they are, but they are not all
from technology novelty and induced consumption, toward
equally vital. In Kumar et al. [21], an equation due to Graedel

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and Allenby [17] is set in contemporary terms—that is from a (see Cross [7], Fallman [9], and Schön [38]), at least in
global perspective addition to general models of process as enumerated in HCI
I=NxPxE texts such as Preece, Rogers, & Sharp [36].
where the total impact, I, of energy consumption, material Reasoning
resource use, and waste production is defined as a product of From the perspective of design reasoning, one way to think
the population size N, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) about SID is as the notion that representations and
per capita P, and the specific impact as a measure of eco- interpretations of interaction design should as well denote
efficiency which may be understood as energy use per GDP and account for the effects of a design on the environment
per capita E. and sustainable behaviors. I would begin such a discourse by
Based on figures from the International Energy Association proposing the following rubric for understanding and
(IEA) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Kumar assessing particular interaction design cases in terms of forms
et al. [21] make predictions that the earth’s population N will of use, reuse, and disposal from the perspective of
increase by a factor of 2 to 10 billion by the year 2050, and sustainability, ordered very approximately from greatest to
that GDP per capita P will increase by a factor of 5, least negative environmental impact:
conservatively stated. Thus, in order only to do no more harm 1. disposal—does the design cause the disposal of physical
than we are already doing to the environment, we need to material, directly or indirectly and even if the primary
reduce energy use per capita E by a factor of 10. Kumar et al. material of the design is digital material?
[21] further point out that the improvement in efficiency in 2. salvage—does the design enable the recovery of
the use of energy over the last 100 years has only been a previously discarded physical material, directly or
factor of 2.5, that faith in technology as usual cannot succeed, indirectly and even if the primary material of the design
and that new thinking is critical to our survival. is digital material?
For the scientific community, these predictions are not at all 3. recycling—does the design make use of recycled
controversial. Thus, sustainability must be counted among physical materials or provide for the future recycling of
the distinguished and primary design values in any context. physical materials, directly or indirectly and even if the
At the very least, the goal of SID is to provide frameworks primary material of the design is digital material?
and discourse that enable interaction designers to reflect on 4. remanufacturing for reuse—does the design provide
sustainability as a design value and situate and balance for the renewal of physical material for reuse or updated
notions of sustainability with respect to other design values. use, directly or indirectly and even if the primary
material of the design is digital material?
Methods 5. reuse as is—does the design provide for transfer of
From the perspective of design methods, one way to think ownership, directly or indirectly and even if the primary
about SID is as the notion that methods for interaction design material of the design is digital material?
need to integrate concern for potential effects on the 6. achieving longevity of use—does the design allow for
environment, and for the sustainability of the behaviors long term use of physical materials by a single owner
induced by designed interactions. Sustainability need not be without transfer of ownership, directly or indirectly and
restricted only to the centrality of environmentalist even if the primary material of the design is digital
concerns—for example, an hypothesis about the effects of material?
interactive computer games on the prevalence of obesity (see 7. sharing for maximal use—does the design allow for
[44], for example) is within the scope of SID and the use of physical materials by many people as a construct
prevalence of obesity is an example of an unsustainable of dynamic ownership, directly or indirectly and even if
behavior. A goal of SID is to suggest ways in which the primary material of the design is digital material?
sustainability concerns can be integrated into existing design 8. achieving heirloom status—does the design create
methods or new design methods in a manner that yields artifice of long-lived appeal that motivates preservation
sustainable interaction design as a practice. such that transfer of ownership preserves quality of
Methods expressed as belief in prescriptions for design experience, directly or indirectly and even if the primary
processes are at the core of the research in HCI and software material of the design is digital material? This notion of
engineering. Löwgren & Stolterman [23]:c4 describe an heirloom status is similar to Nelson & Stolterman’s [30]
inventory of such methods with an eye towards the description of “ensoulment”.
limitations. The complexity of relationships between digital 9. finding wholesome alternatives to use—does the
artifice and sustainability effects make the notion of methods design eliminate the need for the use of physical
as usual problematic for the cause of SID. Design methods resources, while still preserving or even ameliorating
for dealing with the complexity of SID would do well to qualities of life in a manner that is sensitive to and
include those common in other design disciplines, such as scaffolds human motivations and desires?
design critiques, design case studies, and reflective practices

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10. active repair of misuse—is the design specifically (e) How can quality and equality of experience be used to
targeted at repairing the harmful effects of unsustainable promote longevity of digital artifice? (f) How can quality in
use, substituting sustainable use in its place? the design of digital artifice be made available to everyone,
The rubric above provides a mechanism for informal, promoting equality of experience and longevity? (g) How
heuristic reasoning about the sustainability outcomes of can we get people to want and demand sustainable design
physical materials induced by interaction designs. Notions of with the materials of technology? (h) How have digital
“Multi-Use” and “Zero Waste” as described in Kumar et al. technologies already transformed notions of ownership and
[21] map onto all but the first item of the rubric. More formal identity, and what is the sustainable design response to the
reasoning is also possible. As described in Kurk & present condition? (i) Assuming that not everyone will be
McNamara [22]:22, the consulting firm PRe Consultants has willing to give up the materialism that drives unsustainable
devised a metric called ECO indicator 99 for the Dutch behaviors, how can design influence more sustainable
government which may be understood as a notion for consumption and what are the tools that can allow designers
formalizing reasoning about the environmental effects of a to do so?
design, in general. While such metrics may seem overly
PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING ACCORDING TO THE
reductive in some contexts, we might easily imagine an ECO PERSPECTIVE OF SUSTAINABILITY
index specifically for interaction design. I will suggest The rubric for understanding particular interaction design
methods which appeal to such formalism in future work. cases in terms of forms of use, reuse, and disposal from the
In [2], a paper which follows from this one, I give examples perspective of sustainability—disposal, salvage, recycling,
for each of the elements of the rubric, as well as distinguish remanufacturing for reuse, reuse as is, achieving longevity of
between the use of the rubric from the perspective of “design use, sharing for maximal use, achieving heirloom status,
criticism—what is needed to understand and interpret finding wholesome alternatives to use, and active repair of
present ways of being”—as a complement to the perspective misuse—is useful for understanding the environmental
of “critical design—what is needed to ensure that our impact of interaction design in terms of use of physical
actions lead to sustainable future ways of being.” materials and resources, however prompted by the use of
digital materials. The principles presented in the introduction
Open Research Questions are general, informal rules of design for considering how the
There are a number of research questions concerning SID use of digital materials actually prompts the use of physical
that are appropriate. It is not possible to be exhaustive here. ones and motivates behaviors that affect sustainability one
Also, some of these question imply the possibility for more way or another as part of design process, specifically
formal techniques than some others. I divide the questions
(i) linking invention & disposal—is a principle that links
into two categories.
invention as a cause of disposal,
The first category includes questions concerning public (ii) promoting renewal & reuse—is a principle about the
policy, simulation & prediction, such as: (a) How can the first-order design requirement for sustainability which
effects of information technologies on unsustainable includes several of the categories in the rubric above,
behaviors be measured? (b) How can the effects of harmful namely salvage, recycling, remanufacturing for reuse,
use of information technologies be predicted, or simulated? reuse as is, and sharing for maximal use,
(c) What can be learned about SID apropos of sustainable
which are the principles treated in this paper. There are three
behaviors from past experience? (d) What can be learned
more principles for future report, all of which relate to
about SID apropos of sustainable behaviors from other
finding ways to promote renewal & reuse over invention &
societies? (e) How much damage both environmental and
disposal:
otherwise has already occurred? (f) Who is responsible for
ensuring that design with the materials of technologies is (iii) promoting quality & equality—is a principle about the
directed towards sustainability? second-order design requirement for sustainability
concerning what is required to motivate reuse as is,
The second category includes questions concerning
achieving longevity of use, sharing for maximal use, and
motivating sustainable behaviors by means of sustainable
achieving heirloom status,
interaction design, such as: (a) How can digital artifice be
(iv) de-coupling ownership & identity—is a broadly
designed such that people will prefer sustainable behaviors to
construed principle about fashion, the commons,
unsustainable ones? (b) How can the effects of invention be
security & privacy, and sense of selfhood in the context
connected to the effects of disposal in the view of interaction
of globally changing conditions for the construct of
designers and in the public view? (c) How can renewal &
identity as these motivate relationships to the materials
reuse of digital artifice be made to be more attractive than
of consumption, especially with respect to the
invention & disposal in the view of interaction designers and
possibilities for sharing for maximal use,
in the public view? (d) What would it take in the design of
(v) using natural models & reflection—is a principle
digital artifice—as opposed to dictates of public policy—to
about promoting imitation of use of resources in nature
get people to prefer renewal & reuse to invention & disposal?

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and the design method for so doing, a theme which is obsolescence—too often, software may be almost wholly
also especially connected to achieving longevity of use, defined as that insidious material of digital artifice that
sharing for maximal use, achieving heirloom status, causes the premature obsolescence of physical materials.
finding wholesome alternatives to use, and active repair Newly invented hardware capabilities in turn prompt the
of misuse. invention of new software. To my knowledge, the data
These principles for designing according to the perspective of needed to understand the scope of this principle as an
sustainability imply goals for moving the material effects of hypothesis does not exist—it would be an important
design from less desirable to more preferred ones. It is easier undertaking to uncover such information in a systematic way.
to state the kinds of behaviors we would like to achieve from In any event, take as axiomatic and without controversy the
the perspective of sustainability than it is to account for how notion that software is not the material of interaction design,
such behaviors may be adequately motivated—to the point, but rather a material of interaction design and that software,
Stegall [41] claims that “the role of the designer in hardware, and other materials of interactive technologies are
developing a sustainable society is not simply to create all within the dominion of interaction design in general, SID
‘sustainable products,’ but rather to envision products, in particular. Such a perspective is endorsed and without
processes, and services that encourage widespread controversy within the HCI community, especially under the
sustainable behavior.” For Stegall, the intention on the part banners of pervasive and ubiquitous computing (see Weiser
of designers to “encourage positive constructive ways of [45,46]) and invisible computing (see Norman [33]).
life” must be part of the design of artifice. Fry [14]:2,284 Importantly, Jain & Wullert [19] have argued for the
points out that intention in-and-of-itself is not enough, since responsibility of pervasive computing as a discipline to
unsustainable effects can oftentimes follow from the best of consider the environmental impacts of disposal and energy
intentions. consumption of pervasive computing devices. One of the
reviewers provided the insightful observation that “the
In what follows, I describe in more detail the two initial severity of this problem is unprecedented because none of the
principles with an eye towards understanding how interaction previous “revolutions” (e.g. industrial, etc.) faced the scale
designers can evaluate and predict the effects of their craft on and growth-rate similar to this problem.”
sustainable behaviors, providing some examples in the
perspective of design criticism for each of the principles. There is a clearly documented problem with electronic trash,
even if it is not easy to provide quantification of the link to
LINKING INVENTION & DISPOSAL software as a driver of the obsolescence of physical
By linking invention & disposal, I mean the idea that any materials. The toxic composition of discarded computer
design of new objects or systems with embedded materials of electronics is well documented in Townsend et al. [43].
information technologies is incomplete without a Writing in the journal “Environmental Health Perspectives”,
corresponding account of what will become of the objects or Charles Schmidt [39] reports that: “Hungry for information
systems that are displaced or obsoleted by such inventions. technology but with a limited capacity to manufacture it,
Africa has become the world’s latest destination for obsolete
At first glance, if we think of software as a material of electronic equipment. Much of this material is more or less
interaction design, then the principle of linking invention & functional and provided in good faith by well-meaning
disposal seems not to be a concern—no one will be worried donors. But the brokers who arrange these exports often pad
about the environmental impact of replacing old bits with shipping containers with useless junk, essentially saddling
new ones and the disposal of the old bits seems not to be a African importers with electronic garbage.”
concern for sustainability. This notion of regarding software
as a material of design owes to a notion of digital artifacts as Bhuie et al. [5] report that whereas some 70% of cell phones
being composed from materials without qualities as are re-manufactured for reuse in the United States, most
described by Löwgren & Stolterman [23]. By materials personal computers are discarded as re-manufacturing is not
without qualities, Löwgren & Stolterman mean simply that particularly viable from a marketplace point of view. In the
even though digital artifacts do not have physical qualities in US, the cost of upgrading an old personal computer is
the same sense as fabric and concrete, they may still be oftentimes considerably more than the cost of replacing it
regarded as material. In Blevis, Lim, & Stolterman [3], the with a new one—a condition which almost certainly owes
relation between Löwgren & Stolterman’s notion of software more to marketing practices than to actual costs of
as a material of design and the values, methods, and manufacture. The Hewlett Packard (HP) company does have
reasoning framework used to structure the section on SID a program that allows consumers and businesses to trade-in
above is described. old equipment, even equipment that was not manufactured by
HP. The depreciated trade-in allowance for the one year old
On further reflection, it is apparent that software is material HP laptop on which I am writing this article is only 20% of
that prompts physical qualities in the sense that it drives the the original value according to the companies’ web-site. The
demand for new hardware, and as such it causes pre-mature company accepts any old equipment for recycling—non HP
disposal of perfectly adequate physical materials through equipment is accepted at the consumer’s expense. It costs

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Figure 1. The Apple iPod and the 1959 Braun TP1

radio module by Dieter Rams
Figure 2. Street photography
$9.00 US plus shipping to recycle a laptop computer. The long lasting digital products that can be updated rather than
company claims to handle 3 million pounds of equipment per disposed, companies like Apple will respond with
month, claiming to reduce such equipment to raw materials appropriate fashion, design, and marketing models, and other
for the manufacture of new equipment. Apple Computer has companies will follow.
a similar program, as does Dell, according to company web- The observation that the iPod looks to be inspired in form by
sites. the Dieter Rams 1959 design for the Braun TP1 radio (shown
While these programs are possibly laudable, the heart of the as thumbnails in Figure 1) is so pervasive that it is hard to
matter is much more complex than just providing an outlet know whom to credit. The comparison demonstrates that the
for conscientious consumers to discard their old computing invention on Apple’s part is not so much in the product form,
devices when they wish to acquire new ones. There are a lot but rather in many other aspects of the design’s context. One
of question to ask: What is driving this consumption? Why would have hoped that the digital nature of the media that the
can’t such devices be designed to be more easily upgraded to iPod houses would be hardware-preserving and as timeless as
newer technologies? How many consumers will actually pay a quality radio. Sadly, the re-invention by Apple of its own
to responsibly dispose of old equipment? product from time to time—from the original iPod to the
From a designerly perspective of sustainability, the issue of mini to the nano—is a deliberately unsustainable act intent
how invention drives disposal means understanding why on driving consumption and with the clear side effect of
people want new things and looking for ways to get them to premature disposal.
prefer the alternatives to such cycles of acquisition and The material effects of digital photography are different than
disposal. One hopes that the companies will respond to such the material effects of digital music. As another—but not
changes in preferences should they be achieved with new entirely comparable—case, Figure 2 is a photographic
marketplace models, such as models that create incentives for triptych of thumbnails that show an effect of digital invention
renewal & reuse, rather than acquisition of new things and as an instrument of disposal. The first thumbnail is the late
disposal of old ones, or models that create incentives for Andreas Feininger’s 1951 self portrait in which the icon of
shared use. Modularity, upgrade-ability, and construction street photography—a Leica screw mount camera—has
from enduring materials are some of the obvious ways in become one with the photographer’s face, describing a
which this can be achieved—if companies are willing to harmony of photographer and tool. The second thumbnail is
imagine alternative models of commerce. Such preferences a famous portrait of the late Henri Cartier-Bresson holding a
are a matter of fashion and design, rather than engineering later Leica M-mount camera. The Leica cameras in both the
and feature-driven marketing. For example, there are many first and second thumbnails are heirloom quality,
mp3 players that preceded the Apple iPod, but Apple professional objects. Many of these cameras are still in use,
succeeded in turning the mp3 player into an item of fashion even in the digital age. The lenses made for these cameras
both through the design of form and through the design of still fit modern versions of the camera, including the long-
systemic support in the guise of iTunes. A sustainability awaited and unimaginably expensive digital version which
proposition in this case is that to be truly responsible from the has just come to market and which looks not very different
perspective of sustainability, Apple needs to use its fashion than these earlier examples (Figure 3)—this backwards
and design talents to make it chic to want to own and keep an compatibility of such critical components as lenses is an act
heirloom quality iPod, even if some of its components need of sustainable design more typical of professional quality
to be updated from time to time and rather than making it tools than consumer products. The third thumbnail shows the
fashionable to have the new and latest iPod. The hopeful modern notion of a street camera—the cell phone camera.
corollary to this proposition is that if people begin to prefer The ubiquity of this new form comes at the expense of

Figure 3. The Leica MP film camera (left) and the

Figure 4. The Garmin nüvi 350
M8 digital camera (right)

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quality both in terms of image quality and longevity of use, general purpose computing device. Because GPS devices
but ironically greatly increases the opportunities for everyday vary considerably one-from-another, it is important and
creation of street images by everyday people. designerly to provide critiques of particular examples. It is
It is this kind of criticism of the particular cases like the iPod possible to sketch a portion of a design critique of the
and the contrasts between the Leica and the cell phone Garmin nüvi 350 from a perspective of sustainability.
camera that illustrates how the principle of linking invention Nothing is ever simple—this device has apparent properties
& disposal can be applied. In the context of HCI and that make it an environmental hazard as well as apparent
interaction design. Donald Norman—particularly in properties that make it possibly contribute to sustainable
[33,34]—is known for this kind of design criticism. behaviors. The possible un-sustainability effects include: (a)
Nonetheless, the practice of design criticism of particular the distractions to the driver from cognitive overload create
cases is not typical of HCI, which tends in an effort to be safety risks; (b) the device may be easily perceived as
scientific to try to abstract interactivity in general from the obsolete by many consumers as newer models are
use of interactivity in particular. Because of the complexities introduced; (c) the device must be connected to a computer
of understanding context, markets, fashion, and so on, this with a DVD-ROM to be updated and many consumers may
technique of focusing on particular design cases by means of possibly just buy another newer unit rather than purchase
design criticism is a useful method for SID that can be updated maps; (d) this is not an essential device, except
understood to be core design research. perhaps for those few who frequently travel in unfamiliar
places; (e) the mp3 player is limited to SD storage card
PROMOTING RENEWAL & REUSE capacity, which is much less capacity than dedicated mp3
By promoting renewal & reuse, I mean the idea that the players like the iPod. The possible sustainability effects
design of objects or systems with embedded materials of include: (a) the availability of directions, especially to goods
information technologies implies the need to first and and services en route can shorten driving times; (b) the
foremost consider the possibilities for renewal and reuse of device allows updating of older vehicles to include the
existing objects or systems from the perspective of navigation features of newer vehicles; (c) the device can be
sustainability. updated with newer maps; (d) the device is portable and
As with linking invention & disposal, one imagines at first useful for navigating at a destination when traveling by
glance that software as a material of bits makes renewal & airplane, unlike dedicated factory installed vehicle navigation
reuse possible in ways that were not before possible— devices; (e) the mp3 player function may limit purchases of
software updates do not directly imply the destruction of additional dedicated mp3 players.
physical materials. Nonetheless, the same insights about the One of the more compelling possible effects on the positive
cycle of software requiring new hardware and hardware side is that the Garmin GPS can actually provide a means of
prompting new software apply. Especially with respect to the renewal and modernization for older vehicles. The
trend towards peoples’ conceptions of computers as environmental benefits of renewing and reusing older
information appliances (see Norman [33]), the ideal of vehicles may possibly outweigh the environmental benefits
renewal and reuse by means of software revision seems more of substituting old vehicles with newer ones, even when the
remote. As an example, newly introduced GPS navigation newer ones use cleaner technologies—the environmental
devices that come with all of the maps and mapping software costs of disposal and manufacturing need to be taken into
pre-loaded (Figure 4) have displaced older models which account. Furthermore, if the means of renewal and
required users to download the maps on an as needed basis or modernization are available to consumers for some things
mapping applications targeted at PDAs. It may be possible and consumers come to demand a culture of renewal and
that the appliance metaphor once in peoples’ consciousness reuse, perhaps manufacturers will concentrate on marketing
means that renewal by means of software updates is too those very same cleaner technologies as updates to existing
onerous a process, since it is not part of the typical cognitive vehicles rather than incentives for the purchase of the new
model of an appliance. This needs to be studied and the disposal of the old.
systematically. The appliance metaphor may invite a Even if the primary effects of interactive technologies tend to
preference for invention & disposal over renewal & reuse. drive disposal, rather than renewal & reuse, there are some
It is possible to regard the GPS device of Figure 4 as little notable examples of the use of technologies to improve
more than a non-essential, and environmentally harmful sustainability practices or help repair the effects of
object of techno-fetishism. In the global scheme of things, technologies on sustainable behaviors. The web-site
there are many things that seem more important than creating www.freecycle.org is one of a number of internet-enabled
demand for such devices by the affluent peoples of the world. communities that provides a mechanism for people to give
All such considerations notwithstanding, the particular unwanted things away to others who might use them rather
Garmin nüvi 350 GPS device is a remarkably well-designed than discard such things. Here, the internet has the potential
product from an interactivity point of view and a much better to facilitate reuse on a scale that was previously not possible.
example of well-crafted interaction design than possibly any The Australian company Cartridge World is a world-wide

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franchise that seeks to make it easy for people to refill inkjet purchased new in the US in the last 5 years is equal to nearly
printer cartridges rather than purchase new ones. The 90% of the number of people who actually live in the US.
company USA Notebook.Com, Inc. is in the business of The 567M figure represents slightly more than a third of
remanufacturing laptop computers and making them worldwide sales. Such behavior is environmentally
available for sale over the internet, providing a warranty to its unsustainable, especially in the event that others adopt US
customers. Compared to the social machinery of patterns of consumption. The responsibility for designing
consumption created by computer manufacturers, these are otherwise—a term which owes to Fry [14]:266—rests with
small efforts that are nonetheless notable in their intentions. us.
As an issue of contemporary politics and market forces in
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
general, renewal & reuse has little chance in the face of
Many thanks to the reviewers especially, as well as to
invention & disposal—but this may not always be so. As an
Shunying An, Bill Aspray, Jeff Bardzell, Tony Fry, Youn-
issue of science, there are hopelessly too many variables to
Kyung Lim, Kevin Makice, Don Norman, Yvonne Rogers,
be able to determine the exact tradeoffs in environmental
Martin Siegel, Erik Stolterman, Josh Tenenberg, Skip Walter,
costs between renewal & reuse and invention & disposal in
and Anne-Marie Willis.
the general case—but it may be possible to do so in specific
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