How often do software creators actually reach out to us, the users, before they dive into building the next big thing? Almost never. That’s why when we stumble upon a feature in an app that doesn’t quite click with what we’d expect or need, we’re left with few options – shrug it off, maybe send feedback, or lower the app’s rating, sticking with what works and ignoring the rest. This highlights the gaps in pursuing sustainability in software engineering, especially social sustainability goals like human well-being, equity, social justice, privacy, security, and improved quality of life.
It’s not that software developers lack the skills or the know-how when it comes to the nuts and bolts of building an app. They’ve mastered that to a fine art. In fact, many software developers enter the field with a robust understanding of established practices, tools, and frameworks that help them do their job. However, where there is a disconnect is in integrating social sustainability—making tech that not only works smoothly but also respects ethical boundaries, promotes equity, values privacy, and genuinely considers its impact on society. At least we’ve seen from some of the apps we use, they do the work to make things easier, but often at the expense of social sustainability. For example, a mall’s real estate management was caught using shoppers’ photos without consent on a digital information display screen intended to provide information and navigation details, safety and security, as well as enhance overall shopping experience.
Developers who are aware of the importance of these social dimensions hit a wall when it comes to implementation. It’s one thing to nod along to the idea of sustainable practices; it’s another thing entirely to put them into action. The frameworks that have long been the backbone of software development are mostly focussed on the technical aspects, and silent on how to integrate social sustainability.
It would take the intervention of researchers, the ones who don’t just give opinions or theorize about sustainability, but also roll up their sleeves and create tools or frameworks that say to developers: “Here’s how you make your software socially responsible, or here is how you can hear your users to build what is good for them!” This is the research we are conducting at the Dalhousie Software Engineering Laboratory (DalSEL). In our recent research—currently awaiting peer review—we’ve introduced a framework designed to foster empathy among developers. It’s not just a theoretical opinion; we evaluated the framework in an experiment and found that when used, it could genuinely help software professionals support social sustainability goals. I’m eager to share the full findings with you once the preprint is published.
Photo by ready made
