This project was inspired by Gerry Mcgovern’s book ‘World Wide Waste’. Reading this was the first time I really considered the ‘weight’ of digital and its very physical impact on the environment.
I was surprised to learn that the emissions from data centres make up the same percentage as the emissions from the entire aviation industry (2%).
When purchasing a flight ticket I am given the option to offset my carbon; yet I wasn't even aware of having a digital carbon footprint.
The notion of storing items ‘in the cloud’ evokes a sense of lightness and infinite space and I had never before considered the need to review or delete old files. I decided this would be an interesting area to explore further.
Cloud storage is cheap and invisible; the perfect combination to foster lazy storage habits
Most users won't readily make the connection between cloud storage & the power required to run the service
‘Digital carbon footprint’ is a relatively new concept; understanding around this term will be limited
The storage provider used is often not a conscious choice; just what comes connected to your device
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There is a lot of confusion around file storage & many have no idea what they have saved
Cloud storage feels more secure than storing files locally or on external hard drive
83% of respondents have files saved across more than one cloud storage service
Having to organise and delete files is a hassle - many just opt to pay for more storage
The most commonly used cloud storage service was Google Drive at 88%
Explore ways to raise awareness around the physical carbon footprint of cloud storage; showcasing the sustainability initiative Google are working on, and encouraging new thinking around the way we use and organise digital storage. The desired outcome should improve the overall experience for users whilst reducing their carbon footprint.
As part of their current sustainability mission Google are exploring ways to raise awareness around the physical carbon footprint coming from digital storage; showcasing the initiative they are working on, and encouraging new thinking around the way we use and organise digital storage. The desired outcome of which should improve the overall experience for users whilst also reducing their carbon footprint.
Research trends and identify ways in which other organisations are encouraging digital sustainability.
Analyse competitors to understand their strengths, weaknesses & identify opportunities.
Identify Google’s brand values and research their sustainability mission to ensure proposition is in alignment.
Determine how, why & when Google Drive users currently utilise the service.
Define and understand the key factors that encourage new thinking and motivate behavior change.
I quickly came across digital agencies specialising in building eco friendly websites and a carbon calculator which measures the digital ‘weight’ of sites.
It was harder to find products aimed at the general public but I discovered two interesting Chrome extensions.
This extension reminds you not to send unnecessary, un-actionable emails. Once installed, if you try to send an email through Gmail that is under four words it triggers a pop-up that reminds you that all emails create carbon.
Your usage is compared to how many phone charges or kilometres you could travel in an electric car from the same amount of electricity. This makes it relatable and easy to understand.
I conducted remote interviews with five participants between the ages of 25-32.
These interviews opened my eyes to the wide variety of ways in which participants used Drive and their differing attitudes to organisation and storage.
There was a lot of brand loyalty to Google yet none of the participants thought of them as being environmentally sustainable.
“With my computer I try to clear it every so often because visually it just makes me feel better when it's not cluttered but also so my computer will hopefully run faster”
“I need to figure out how to clean it in a way that's not so, cognitive overload”
“I know the environment is totally screwed & I do have an overwhelming sense of helplessness surrounding that”
Reflecting on my research I had a bit of doubt regarding the validity of my project in regards to the complexity of the problem and the conflict in adding a feature and therefore ‘weight’ to a product.
This feature is designed to be a first step in building awareness around the direct environmental impact of our digital habits.
Taking ownership of this issue enables Google to further highlight their sustainability focus as a competitive advantage.
It should initiate discussion around accountability for the full lifecycle of the content we create.
It should also highlight how individual, small changes can make a difference when done by many.
I kept my Feature Map pretty simple as I was essentially looking to design a ‘dashboard’ page that provided an overview of use, introduced the concept of a digital carbon footprint and offered straightforward, actionable tasks to help reduce it. I also saw this feature as an opportunity for Google to showcase their sustainability mission.
Creating a Task Flow presented the opportunity to think about how the dashboard feature could become part of the routine of opening Drive, especially at the start of new week. I explored how users might scan over elements of their dashboard and action a few ‘digital hygiene’ tasks before opening a recent file to start working on it.
I created three User Flows based on my main persona Hannah. These flows focused on the concepts of quick ‘Daily Digital Hygiene’, the more through ‘Spring Clean’ and the feel good nature of being told you are doing your bit to help the environment. Creating these flows also gave me the idea to include a prompt for users to name and file new documents, before closing, in order to encourage better habits.
At the start of the week Hannah opens up Drive in order to create a presentation
The Control Panel gives her an overview of last week & suggests a few quick ways she can better optimise her Drive.
She decides to action these; a new folder is created to group some of last weeks files & a duplicate file is deleted.
Out of habit, Hannah goes to close her presentation without naming or filing it. When she clicks close, a pop up gives her the option to do this.
Ensure the new feature blends seamlessly into the Drive product and fits the Google Brand
Balance the personal benefits of better organisation with the environmental benefits
Easy, actionable ways the user can make improvements
User testing was successfully carried out with four test participants; all of whom who were Google Drive users and had no prior knowledge of my project.
Participants seemed less comfortable being asked to explore a screen and give a running commentary than they might have been if given a more action based task.
The pre-planned prompt questions were definitely necessary in helping to encourage participants to verbalise all their thoughts & test their understanding of the information presented.
Participants were interested to learn more about their digital carbon footprint
The 'neat' and 'clear layout' aligns well with the Google brand
Enthusiasm for the organisational aspect that encourages ‘Good Housekeeping’
Participants felt motivated by the simple step by step actions that require little thought
This was an interesting point and I decided to make the change after seeing the two options side by side.
A larger scale test of user understanding of carbon versus C02 would be necessary in order to determine whether this was the right decision.
He saw the benefit of the organisational aspect of this feature as well as what he perceived as added transparency into what Google are doing to improve things. This issue would need further investigation as it wasn’t something I was able to address in the second iteration.
A possible solution would be to personalise the control panel experience to start from a purely organisational perspective and add the sustainability information as users interact with it more.
He saw the benefit of the organisational aspect of this feature as well as what he perceived as added transparency into what Google are doing to improve things. This issue would need further investigation as it wasn’t something I was able to address in the second iteration.
A possible solution would be to personalise the control panel experience to start from a purely organisational perspective and add the sustainability information as users interact with it more.
This project offered a unique challenge in trying to create a new feature that balanced the need to offer existing Drive users tangible benefits whilst trying to raise awareness of the environmental impact of digital.
Whilst the direct environmental impact of a feature like the one explored in this case study would be small, it could offer benefits to both Google and its users through increased transparency and by starting new dialogues about the challenges we face in reducing the negative impact of digital.
This case study focuses on Google Drive, however with slight adaptation this feature could work equally well for a number of other cloud storage systems and cloud based applications.
