Value sensitive design
An approach that builds human values, such as privacy, autonomy or trust, into the design of a technology from start to finish, also thinking about those who don't use it.
What it’s for
It spots early the values a technology can harm, for those who use it or those who only live with its effects, even if it works well.
Principles
Three kinds of investigation
Conceptual (which values are at stake and for whom), empirical (how people experience them) and technical (how the design supports or threatens them), repeated in cycles.
Direct and indirect stakeholders
Those who use the technology count, and so do those who feel its effects without using it.
Values can clash
Privacy and security, for example, sometimes pull in opposite directions; the conflict is made visible and decided.
How it’s done
Name the values at stake and who they affect.
Investigate how direct and indirect stakeholders experience them.
Design to support them, and review the result.
Applications in design
When to use it
In technology that touches personal data, automated decisions, health or public spaces, where the effects go beyond those who use it.
Avoid
Making a list of values at the start and never looking at it again.
Don’t fall for it
Don't decide on your own which values matter: ask the people affected.
Connections
Authors and works
- 1996
Batya Friedman
Named it in an article that argued for taking human values into account when designing computer systems.
- 2017
Batya Friedman, David G. Hendry, and Alan Borning
Gathered and described the approach's methods, such as the analysis of direct and indirect stakeholders.
- 2019
Batya Friedman and David G. Hendry
Explained the approach's theory, methods and application cases in a book.
Sources
Original sources
- Friedman, B. (1996). Value-sensitive design. Interactions, 3(6), 16–23. View source: Friedman, B. (1996)
- Friedman, B., & Hendry, D. G. (2019). Value sensitive design: Shaping technology with moral imagination. The MIT Press.
Academic reviews
- Friedman, B., Hendry, D. G., & Borning, A. (2017). A survey of value sensitive design methods. Foundations and Trends in Human–Computer Interaction, 11(2), 63–125. View source: Friedman, B., Hendry, D. G., & Borning, A. (2017)
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