Sustainability
This application is not only about functionality, but also about how the system affects users, organizations and society over time. Through the use of the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF) and the Sustainability Awareness Diagram (SusAD), the group has developed the solution with a focus on sustainability. The system can have both positive and negative consequences, and it has therefore been a goal to identify and manage these impacts in the most positive direction possible.
To identify and analyze the system's sustainable consequences, we used the tool Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF), which made it possible to assess positive and negative effects of the system across different dimensions (Becker, et al., 2016). In order to structure and visualize these impacts, the group used the Sustainability Awareness Diagram (SusAD). The tools enabled the group to assess how the system affects individuals, society and technology over time (Becker, et al., 2016).
(Figur 1: SusAF, SUSO.academy)
Individual sustainability is about creating a system that has a positive effect on the user (Becker, et al., 2016). This system has a positive effect by contributing to more efficient in the form of informative contributions. The user of the application can make more informative choices when they receive verified information about the organizations. This helps to minimize uncertainty and mental strain, through informed choices. By implementing private user profiles and donation history, this can contribute to increased engagement and more contributions to the organizations. Users can choose to make anonymous donations, which contributes to safer privacy. However, privacy also presents challenges if this anonymity is exploited for criminal acts such as money laundering.
Within social sustainability, one wants to be able to create trust, increase justice and contribute to a better society (Becker, et al., 2016). The application contributes to increased trust through verified information from the Fundraising Control (IK), which can be directly linked to the system by a real application. Verification reduces the risk of fraud and makes it easier for the user to support serious organizations. At the same time, it contributes to more transparency in the donation process, where the user receives more information in relation to the organization itself, where the money goes and what the funds are used for. Not least, the user gets greater insight into how the donation is processed. In other words, there is more transparency and less "Black box" in processing and transactions. Increased visibility can unfortunately also contribute to larger organizations gaining more visibility. To reduce the risk of skewed visibility, a carousel has been implemented on the front page of the application, where randomly selected organizations are displayed to the user, for increased awareness and information about possible contributions.
Technological sustainability is about how the system is built and how easy it is to maintain (Becker, et al., 2016). The application uses Java and a modular structure, which makes the system easier to maintain. By using a database, the system can be easily further developed, although scalability is currently limited. If desired, the system can be connected to external data sources when further developing a real application. In this case, this applies especially in the form of a real payment solution and a connection to the Fundraising Control (IK). Thus, the solution is currently inadequate and limited in terms of full backend and external integration, but something that can easily be further developed.
Economic sustainability is about economic effects (Becker, et al., 2016). The application has been developed with the aim of making donations more efficient and reducing administrative work. This helps users find legitimate organizations faster and verifications help ensure that more donations go to serious actors. However, without a real payment solution, the effect is still limited for the time being.
Environmental Sustainability is about the environmental perspective in developing such an application (Becker, et al., 2016). A digital solution will be able to reduce paper emissions, which will reduce the physical need for documentation and distribution. On the other hand, a digital infrastructure can lead to increased server and energy consumption if the system grows.
In conclusion, the sustainability analysis shows that the application has great potential to contribute positively in several areas, especially when it comes to trust, usability and informed decisions. At the same time, the analysis also reveals several challenges, especially related to privacy, uneven distribution of visibility and technical limitations. By using SusAF and SusAD, the group has gained a better understanding of how the system can affect both users, organizations and society over time. This has made it possible to make more conscious choices in the design and development of the solution. Although the current application is only a prototype, it provides a good basis for further development. In order to realize the system's full sustainability potential, further work related to security, scalability and integration with external systems will be necessary.
References:
Becker, C., Betz, S., Chitchyan, R., Duboc, L., Easterbrook, S. M., Penzenstadler, B., . . . Venters, C. C. (2016). Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF). Retrieved from SUSO (Sustainable Software): https://www.suso.academy/en/sustainability-awareness-framework-susaf/