Creating Sustainable Internet of Things Futures : Aligning Legal and Design Research Agendas

Urquhart, Lachlan and Lechelt, Susan and Terras, Melissa and Sailaja, Neelima and Rezk, Anna Marie and Castle-Green, Teresa and Paris Darzentas, Dimitrios and Primlani, Namrata and Owen, Violet and Stead, Michael (2024) Creating Sustainable Internet of Things Futures : Aligning Legal and Design Research Agendas. In: DIS '24 Companion: Companion Publication of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference :. ACM, New York, pp. 372-376. ISBN 9798400706325

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Abstract

The way consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices are built is leading to electronic waste (eWaste) growth. This arises from planned obsolescence, bundling of ‘smartness’ creating more routes to device failure, and lacking hardware modularity and repairability. Understanding how to best to tackle these issues requires an interdisciplinary perspective bridging design, law, and the social science research. The legal landscape is shifting, encouraging design of repairable and long-lasting IoT, and reducing routes to redundancy. This one-day workshop explores the interface between design and legal research to address the socio-technical challenges around designing sustainable consumer IoT devices. The workshop will: map out the societal, legal, and environmental implications of IoT; envision the opportunities and barriers to designing more sustainable IoT; and share best practice and tools how to move towards more sustainable IoT futures.