Low Power Web: Legacy Design and the Path to Sustainable Net Futures

Max Willis*, Julian Hanna, Enrique Encinas, James Auger

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceedingArticle in proceedingResearchpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

HCI is complicit in the climate crisis, as the systems and services that we design engender unsustainable energy use and waste. HCI has equal potential to find solutions for environmental challenges and script, by design, the behavioral changes needed for sustainable net futures. We explore this dichotomy through the lens of data transmission, examining the energy consumption and environmental impact of web communications. This work begins with a critical revisiting of legacy web design that mines the past for actionable ideas towards sustainable net futures. We query how we can reduce our own net energy consumption, and plot a path to design our low-power website. In addition we speculate on a redesign of the background systems, outlining the practical steps we have taken towards solar, wind, gravity and micro-hydro low-power web hosting solutions.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI EA '20 : Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publication dateApr 2020
Pages1-14
Article number3381829
ISBN (Electronic)9781450368193
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2020
EventCHI 2020: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Honolulu, United States
Duration: 25 Apr 202030 Jun 2020

Conference

ConferenceCHI 2020: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHonolulu
Period25/04/202030/06/2020

Keywords

  • Green HCI
  • Low-power web
  • Renewable energy
  • Sustainable design
  • Web design

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