EC-16.4 Lifecycle, Environmental Impact and Accessibility
You can trace a product's impact across its whole life rather than at the point of use, identify where a design decision changes that impact most, and design for people whose abilities differ from yours rather than adapting for them afterwards.
Both halves of this topic share one structural insight: the decisions that matter are made early and cheaply, and become expensive or impossible later. A material chosen at the design stage decides most of a product's environmental cost, and an interface designed to be usable from the start is cheaper than any later adaptation and works better.
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The whole life, not the point of use
Materials, manufacture, transport, use, and what happens at the end. A device that uses less power in service can still cost more overall if its manufacture or its disposal is worse.
NPTEL: Sustainable Engineering Concepts and Life Cycle Analysis (IIT Kharagpur) · CourseWhere a design decision changes the impact most
Material choice, expected lifetime, and whether the thing can be repaired dominate the total. Efficiency in use matters and is usually a smaller lever than any of those three.
NPTEL: Sustainable Engineering Concepts and Life Cycle Analysis (IIT Kharagpur) · CourseDesigning for repair and for the end of life
Fasteners rather than adhesive, available spare parts, separable materials and published service information. Each is a decision made at design time that cannot be added afterwards.
NPTEL: Sustainable Engineering Concepts and Life Cycle Analysis (IIT Kharagpur) · CourseElectronic waste and the materials in it
Electronics contain both hazardous substances and valuable ones, and informal recycling exposes people to the first while recovering little of the second. Design decisions affect how recoverable a product is.
NPTEL: Sustainable Engineering Concepts and Life Cycle Analysis (IIT Kharagpur) · CourseAccessibility as a design property rather than an adaptation
An interface built to work with a screen reader, with keys as well as a touchscreen, and without relying on colour alone, works for far more people. Retrofitting any of these is harder and worse.
NPTEL: Digital Accessibility (IIIT Delhi) · CourseTesting with people whose abilities differ from yours
A designer's own experience is the least representative sample available. Testing with someone who uses a screen reader, or has limited fine motor control, reveals problems no checklist would.
NPTEL: Digital Accessibility (IIIT Delhi) · Course
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