Designing Sustainable IT System – From the Perspective of Universal Design Principles

Abstract

Abstract. Since the concept of universal design is already extending the boundary of disabilities, it is significant to include different aspects of information technology where universal design enabled efforts can contribute towards better designed systems, products and services. Sustainability is an important and growing public concern in today's world. Nevertheless, attempts of designing IT system that can be called sustainable in nature are not so evident at present. In this paper we propose a framework originating from sustainable IT system design principles (also described in the paper). The universal design principles are used as a foundation upon which the resultant sustainable IT system design principles were derived. The concept of 'sustainable IT system' addressed in this research paper is beyond the common phenomenon of sustainability like green IT, CO 2 emission etc. Rather, the framework proposed in this paper incorporates more user inclusion and increased user satisfaction together towards higher usability. And an IT system designed in this manner is a sustainable IT system according to the argument of this paper which can therefore be designed by following the proposed design principles and framework.

Finding sustainability indicators for information system assessment

“…In our theoretical framework of Mustaquim and Nyström [24], UD principles were used to derive sustainable IT system design principles. The result from this paper could directly relate to the foundation of UD where it was seen from a new, broader perspective to be practiced outside the scope of accessibility issues.…”

“…Mutsaquim and Nyström [24] showed a way of extending the traditional use of UD principles by creating sustainable IT system design principles, this was done by juxtapose sustainability and UD together to produce six unique design principles. Fiksel [11] has in his research discussed different conventional sustainability indicators.…”

Some Aspects of Using Universal Design as a Redesign Strategy for Sustainability

“…However, considering UD previously proved to be useful in research conducted by Mustaquim and Nyström [9,10] when UD was viewed as a useful resource for sustainability achievement. Historically, UD as a concept was introduced as a solution to accessibility problems detected in the environment and products and it resulted in seven design principles [15] that should permeate the design process.…”

“…UD as a design strategy has notably shown its potential in design for sustainability issues. For instance, Mustaquim and Nyström [9] revealed how UD principles as a base could generate sustainable IT system design principles by thinking outside associated accessibility issues. Although UD is being used as a design philosophy, it has failed to show any evidence of being used as a redesign strategy with respect to sustainability.…”

Open Sustainability Innovation—A Pragmatic Standpoint of Sustainable HCI

“…In fact, sustainable system design should have a better chance to reach sustainable goals with more stakeholders involved, e.g. open innovation [15]. Thus an improved open innovation and marketing policy could promote positive incentives towards reaching different sustainable goals.…”