Plant Guild Composer: A Software System for Sustainability.
Juliet Norton, Alex J. Stringfellow, Joseph J. LaViola, Birgit Penzenstadler, Bill Tomlinson · Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research · 2013
This paper presents the design concept for a software application to aid users in the development of a sustainable backyard food and resource system1. It presents how we gathered and analyzed the requirements for an application that achieves a balance of user convenience, awareness, and sustainability in the context of creating a domestic plant guild. A plant guild is a community of plants that sustains itself and provides for people's essential needs. Based on a field study, the authors present requirements for building a Plant Guild Composer as one approach for addressing the aforementioned challenge. The requirements have been generalized because future applications that aide in the construction of a sustainable human system, which supports some human need without compromising the ability to satisfy this and other human needs in the future nor contributing to environmental degradation, may encounter similar design challenges.