Interactions - January/February 2010

It’s much harder to
understand how to prolong
the use of things constructed
from the materials of
software and how
to reclaim such things for
new purposes.

January + February 2010

[ 3] Quariguasi Frota Neto, J. and Bloemhof, J.M. “The Environmental Gains of Remanufacturing: Evidence from the Computer and Mobile Industry.” ERIM Report Series Research In Management. 2009. See also: Nasr, N. and Thurston, M. “Remanufacturing: A Key Enabler to Sustainable Product Systems.” In Proceedings of the 13th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering: 15–18, 2006. There is a broad literature on this topic.

improve quality without the need for new hard-
ware as a core business model instead of using
software materials as a tool to promote the prema-
ture obsolescence of physical materials. It’s encour-
aging to see the sustainable path may turn out to
be the better business path in this case—one hopes
for such a trend. Of course, by the time this article
appears, the wider reception to Windows 7 will be
better known. It also remains to be seen how many
people will purchase new machines rather than
install the newer operating system on their exist-
ing machines. Moreover, our optimism should be
tempered by the fact that system requirements for
Windows 7 are still much larger than for Windows
XP, according to Microsoft’s site. Nonetheless, many
machines that originally shipped with Windows XP
will probably run Windows 7 adequately.
As interaction designers, we may not believe
we are at the helm of the enterprise forces, which
choose the disposal of old things and the consump-
tion of new ones over reclaiming. We may hold
more influence than we think. We can align our-
selves with the folks who reclaim things as in the
presented images. We can design interactivity to
promote such thinking, making it easy to reclaim
physical things by improving software and making
it easier for consumers to install newer software
themselves rather than buying new things in order
to obtain newer software. We can persuade busi-
ness strategists that increasing the quality of the
amorphous software elements of products can
build customer loyalty and increase the willingness
to pay for software upgrades.
Therein lies a possibility for a better, more sus-
tainable business model than the targeted obsoles-
cence of physical things. The recent trend toward
netbooks over more powerful laptops suggests
that improvements to software quality and core
functionality may trump the prior model of ever
increasing demands for improved hardware perfor-
mance and features.

interactions

create a public “mini farm” advertising a consul-
tancy targeted at people who may want to know
more about recent trends in urban agriculture.
Recycle bin decorated with its own contents. (Figure
D). A recycle bin in a trendy district of Indianapolis
is decorated with its own intended contents and
signed by what appears to be a craftsperson or
designer. As such, it integrates reclaimed mate-
rial as affordance, both to provide a visual cue to
intended use and to serve as public art.
In manufacturing, the idea of a closed loop sys-
tem—in which materials are reclaimed for reuse
from products that have reached the end of their
useful service life—is frequently described as key
to environmentally sound practice. For example,
Quariguasi Frota Neto and Bloemhof recently argue
from evidence that reclaiming certain forms of
electronics—especially mobile phones and com-
puters—by means of remanufacturing and resale
significantly increases eco-efficiency [ 3].
What is the role of digital materials—software
and things driven by software and interaction
design—in reclaiming things?
A few years ago, the large space required to run
the Microsoft Vista operating system was a seem-
ingly intentional source of obsolescence for many
computers. That Vista has not been well received
is an understatement. As I write this, Windows
7 appears to reverse Microsoft’s earlier strategy,
allowing its customers to reclaim their existing
computers from Vista-dom. My personal laptop
and desktop machines have both been so rescued
and I’m delighted. Interactivity and reliability are
both greatly improved. Possibly, the lesson of Vista
and Windows 7 will prove to be a trend—business
strategists and software designers will target the
ability to reclaim through software upgrades that

Eli Blevis is an associate professor of informatics in
the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana
University Bloomington. He is contributing editor
for the Sustainably Ours forum. His primary
research concerns are sustainable interaction
design and design-oriented perspectives in the
confluence of HCI and design.