Multi-Objective Optimization of Energy Consumption of GUIs in Android Apps

Abstract

The number of mobile devices sold worldwide has exponentially increased in recent years, surpassing that of personal computers in 2011. Such devices daily download and run millions of apps that take advantage of modern hardware features (e.g., multi-core processors, large Organic Light-Emitting Diode—OLED—screens, etc.) to offer exciting user experiences. Clearly, there is a cost to pay in terms of energy consumption and, in particular, of reduced battery life. This has pushed researchers to investigate how to reduce the energy consumption of apps, for example, by optimizing the color palette used in the app’s GUI. Whilst past research in this area aimed at optimizing energy while keeping an acceptable level of contrast, this article proposes an approach, named Gui Energy Multi-objective optiMization for Android apps (GEMMA), for generating color palettes using a multi-objective optimization technique, which produces color solutions optimizing energy consumption and contrast while using consistent colors with respect to the original color palette. The empirical evaluation demonstrates (i) substantial improvements in terms of the three different objectives, (ii) a concrete reduction of the energy consumption as assessed by a hardware power monitor, (iii) the attractiveness of the generated color compositions for apps’ users, and (iv) the suitability of GEMMA to be adopted in industrial contexts.