Guidelines for sustainable design in software development process

Abstract

Software and digital products have a big impact on sustainable development because they require more energy and resources to develop. While much of the effort in sustainable IT has focused on reducing the environmental impact of hardware, less emphasis has been considered on the environmental consequences of software design and development (SDD). More efficient software uses fewer hardware resources, resulting in energy savings. However, in the world of software sustainability, not much attention has been paid to the connection between efficiency and software design and development.

This thesis explores a case company targeted to increase software efficiency and sustainability, which brings considerable benefits not only for energy conservation but also for lowering the overall environmental footprint of software products. The company's primary purpose is to build a set of sustainable practices for designers to follow during the design phase of the software development life cycle. These recommendations aim to improve the environmental aspects of the company's digital products and services’ early in the development life cycle, since it believes that addressing both software and hardware issues is necessary to create a full and sustainable solution.

The research includes carrying out a literature review to introduce sustainable practices into software products, with a focus on User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX). This review aims to gain insights into sustainability practices and standards at various stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) as well as identify sustainable design guidelines based on existing software sustainability standards. Data will be collected through interviews with design experts from the case company to understand the current sustainability strategies in use, identify potential areas of focus for enhancement based on the initial proposed guidelines, evaluate design experts' knowledge of sustainability, and explore new ideas for combining sustainability into the UI and UX aspects during the design phase of the SDLC.