A Survey of Value Sensitive Design Methods

Research focusing on the development of socially assistive robots (SARs) for the care of older adults has grown in recent years, prompting a great deal of ethical analysis and reflection on the future of SARs in caring roles. Much of this ethical thinking, however, has taken place far from the settings where technological innovation is practiced. Different frameworks have been proposed to bridge this gap and enable researchers to handle the ethical dimension of technology from within the design and development process, including Value Sensitive Design (VSD). VSD has been defined as a “theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the design process”. Inspired in part by VSD, we have developed a process geared towards embedding ethics at the core of CARESSES, an international multidisciplinary project that aims to design the first culturally competent SAR for the care of older adults. Here we describe that process, which included extracting key ethical concepts from relevant ethical guidelines and applying those concepts to scenarios that describe how the CARESSES robot will interact with individuals belonging to different cultures. This approach highlights the ethical implications of the robot's behavior early in the design process, thus enabling researchers to identify and engage with ethical problems proactively.

The value sensitive design (VSD) approach to designing emerging technologies for human values is taken as the object of study in this chapter. VSD has traditionally been conceptualized as another type of technology or instrumentally as a tool. The various parts of VSD's principled approach would then aim to discern the various policy requirements that any given technological artifact under consideration would implicate. Yet, little to no consideration has been given to how laws, policies, and social norms engage within VSD practices, similarly, how the interactive nature of the VSD approach can, in turn, influence those directives. This is exacerbated when considering machine ethics policy that has global consequences outside their development spheres. This chapter begins with the VSD approach and aims to determine how policies come to influence how values can be managed within VSD practices. It shows that the interactional nature of VSD permits and encourages existing policies to be integrated early on and throughout the design process.

Value Sensitive Design (VSD) is the theoretical approach that applied to technology design, in particular for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The User Interface (UI) design is one of the concerns in HCI, being multidisciplinary, it ensures the user's satisfaction and perception of technology which follows during the development process. The VSD method takes human values in a comprehensive manner throughout three investigations called tripartite methodology, and the investigations applied as the techniques to investigate the requirements of the development from various stakeholders values. Since variations of stakeholders, VSD method follows the designers, direct and indirect stakeholders to take out required values into the development. In spite of the widely used VSD method undetermined the values that to be considered on design as designers, direct or indirect stakeholders. The argument considering the values has been researching since the concept applied to HCI design which indicates the method limitation. In this research considered two values, designers and stakeholders and the key concern to observe the effects and realism of the applications of VSD method into the design of user interface also reviewed earlier researches on the application of VSD. The analysis through the development of hospital management system interface to investigate whose values to be considered in the HCI design. Performed user survey based on two criteria that evaluates the variations of stakeholders values which effects on the user interface design that is the contribution of the research, and it enlightens the concept of values of VSD should considered in the future user interface design.

Value sensitive design (VSD) is an approach that facilitates the pro-active incorporation of human values into technological design. The VSD literature, as well as empirical studies, identify environmental sustainability as a human value with importance in design, and therefore importance in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) design. UAS have begun to spark significant public interest and environmental changes. However, there are few studies that address how to design UAS for these changes, and none that take VSD as their point of departure. In this work, the environmental sustainability of UAS are analyzed using VSD and environmental impact potential assessment (EIPA) approaches. VSD envisioning cards are used as design prompts to identify relevant social and environmental impacts for two case studies to illustrate the approach: a healthcare application, and a powerline inspection application. The environmental impact potential is assessed, along with consideration of the drone’s materials and manufacturing processes which have an effect on toxicity to humans, water depletion, and acidification. Then, general insights into how UAS can be designed for enhanced environmental sustainability are discussed. The results show high sensitivity to changes in defining the system boundaries and in defining relevant UAS scenarios, as a direct comparison of drone and non-drone scenarios is not possible. Thus, VSD and EIPA approaches can provide a nuanced way to analyze UAS applications, leading to positive social impacts and enhanced environmental sustainability in UAS in the future.

With the increasing use of social media by older adults, age stereotypes have become a problem that cannot be ignored. A lot of studies have shown that age stereotypes have a negative impact on the Internet engagement and performance of the older adults. In order to promote the older adults engage into modern digital life, elderly-oriented social media reform has become an effective means. Value sensitive design is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the design process. In this study, we try to build an elderly-oriented social media design framework based on value sensitive design. We try to find the exclusive values that the older adults really care about beyond the age stereotype. We hope that this research can provide designers with an idea, that is, breaking the age stereotype and integrating elderly-oriented design into every stage of social media design.KeywordsOlder adultsAge stereotypeSocial mediaValue sensitive design

There is an increasing awareness of the importance of considering values in the design of technology. There are several research approaches focused on this, such as e.g., value-sensitive design, value-centred human–computer interaction (HCI), and value-led participatory design, just to mention a few. However, less attention has been given to developing educational materials for the role that values play in HCI, why hands-on teaching activities are insufficient, and especially teaching activities that cover the full design process. In this article, we claim that teaching for ethics and values in HCI is not only important in some parts of the design and development process, but equally important all through. We will demonstrate this by a unique collection of 28 challenges identified throughout the design process, accompanied by inspirational suggestions for teaching activities to tackle these challenges. The article is based on results from applying a modified pedagogical design pattern approach in the iterative development of an open educational resource containing teaching and assessment activities and pedagogical framework, and from pilot testing. Preliminary results from pilots of parts of the teaching activities indicate that student participants experience achieving knowledge about how to understand and act ethically on human values in design, and teachers experience an increased capacity to teach for values in design in relevant and innovative ways. Hopefully, this overview of challenges and inspirational teaching activities focused on values in the design of technology can be one way to provide teachers with inspiration to sensitize their students and make them better prepared to become responsible designers by learning how to address and work with values in HCI.

Addressing and integrating human values into AI design and development processes in research and practice can be difficult, and a clear methodological approach can clarify issues of both theory and practice. One such approach is Value Sensitive Design (VSD), an established theory for addressing issues of values in a systematic and principled fashion in the design of information technology. However, it is unclear how VSD is translated into current design practices and whether it has been integrated into existing methodologies. In this paper, we investigated whether and to what extent VSD has passed down into design methodologies used in practice. We found that the actual application of VSD in methodologies is limited, but that in the last few years, steps have been taken to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

This paper engages with the problem of toxic speech online and suggests remedies inspired by the value-sensitive design literature (VSD), suggesting that the designers of online platforms should explore methods of adding friction to online conversations. Second, this paper examines a historical case of designing a communications platform to offer methods to users to inculcate norms of acceptable behavior by introducing friction into synchronous conversations. This is the case of America Online (AOL) Instant Messenger, also known as AIM, which included a feature whereby users could “warn” other users, attaching a cost to, and thus disincentivizing, certain kinds of speech. The nuances of the design of this feature make it especially well-suited as a subject of study in value-sensitive design as it seems to be the product of significant reflection and foresight by its designers. In the course of examining this case, this paper proposes two novel and generalizable processes of integrating values into the design of technology, inspired by the approach of value-sensitive design: a “method of decomposition,” reconstructing a user journey in order to identify possible moments of intervention; and an iterative “Innovation–Abuse–Innovation” branching diagram, which systematizes the process of anticipating abuse cases and designing responses to them. These methods build upon recent work in the literature on operationalizing ethical values in the design process. I close by illustrating the flexibility and generalizability of these methods and speculating on how they might be applied to contemporary platforms.

The Value Sensitive Design (VSD) methodology provides a comprehensive framework for advancing a value-centered research and design agenda. Although VSD provides helpful ways of thinking about and designing value-centered computational systems, we argue that the specific mechanics of VSD create thorny tensions with respect to value sensitivity. In particular, we examine limitations due to value classifications, inadequate guidance on empirical tools for design, and the ways in which the design process is ordered. In this paper, we propose ways of maturing the VSD methodology to overcome these limitations and present three empirical case studies that illustrate a family of methods to effectively engage local expressions of values. The findings from our case studies provide evidence of how we can mature the VSD methodology to mitigate the pitfalls of classification and engender a commitment to reflect on and respond to local contexts of design.

The paper is devoted to Value Sensitive Design (VSD). This approach, widely presented in foreign scientific and specialized literature, has not been reflected in the Russian-language discourse. The authors of the study consider the theoretical foundations and methodological tools of VSD, clarify the conceptual apparatus, and also carry out a critical analysis of some of its main provisions (in particular, the question is raised about the absence of a philosophical theory of values, the eclecticism of the modern approach, insufficiently developed methods of cooperation with engineers, designers and potential stakeholders). VSD is viewed in the context of technology assessment and socially responsible innovation. We are talking about a diverse set of practices for the rational shaping of technologies, taking into account the values of society, suggesting a more active and conscious involvement of ordinary citizens (not experts) in the discussion of issues related to the development and design of technologies. An understanding of values with an emphasis on ethics and morality raises the question of achieving a balance between competing values and choosing the desired values, taking into account the diversity of interests of direct and indirect stakeholders. In this regard, two main goals of the VSD stand out. On the one hand, it involves identifying and critically analyzing desirable or limiting values that have been (intentionally or unintentionally) inscribed into existing technologies. On the other hand, VSD offers practical recommendations on how to deliberately and purposefully inscribe socially approved values into the design of new equipment, software, databases, and algorithms. Finally, the article defines the directions of possible applied research: (a) the development of the theory and methodology of change management through structuring the change management process according to the hierarchical principle of interaction, as well as identifying persons and groups that are affected by organizational changes and how; (b) fundamental aspects of human-machine interaction, in particular, human-robot interaction (HRI), which is of great practical importance for the design and production of socially responsible service robotics.

It is increasingly recognized that human values play an essential role in engineering design. Recent literature in the ethics of technology has focused on spelling out the role of values in different fields of engineering. Value Sensitive Design (VSD), as a well-established approach, aims to systematically integrate human values into technologies and engineering products. Although there is significant attention to stakeholders in VSD, how contexts may affect what stakeholders perceive as values deserves more attention. It seems that there is an implicit tendency to universality in the studies of VSD and it is often assumed implicitly that values have the same meaning in different contexts and in different cultures. Therefore, while the concept of cultural relativism and its difference to universalism has been taken into account, we propose paying explicit attention to the contextual sense of values, namely the interpretation, prioritization and perception of values that have their basis in the specific contexts in which they are implemented, for instance, in a specific cultural or religious setting. Building on the proposed categorization of contextual sense of values in which their evolution has shown, we aim to shed light on what these contextual senses entail and how an explicit focus on contextuality could improve VSD. It will be argued that contextually looking at VSD may make it more flexible in dealing with the different contexts/cultures.

A device for the in-home detection of nocturnal seizures is currently being developed in the Netherlands, to improve care for patients with severe epilepsy. It is recognized that the design of medical technology is not value neutral: perspectives of users and developers are influential in design, and design choices influence these perspectives. However, during development processes, these influences are generally ignored and value-related choices remain implicit and poorly argued for. In the development process of the seizure detector we aimed to take values of all stakeholders into consideration. Therefore, we performed a parallel ethics study, using “value sensitive design.” Analysis of stakeholder communication (in meetings and e-mail messages) identified five important values, namely, health, trust, autonomy, accessibility, and reliability. Stakeholders were then asked to give feedback on the choice of these values and how they should be interpreted. In a next step, the values were related to design choices relevant for the device, and then the consequences (risks and benefits) of these choices were investigated. Currently the process of design and testing of the device is still ongoing. The device will be validated in a trial in which the identified consequences of design choices are measured as secondary endpoints. Value sensitive design methodology is feasible for the development of new medical technology and can help designers substantiate the choices in their design.

This paper aims to take the current ethical research on electronic patient records beyond the ethical-legal issues of privacy to include contemporary issues of the 'politics of technology' and 'value sensitive design'. The paper employs an interpretive approach to analyze research on electronic patient records with concepts of the politics of technology and value sensitive design. The broad development towards computerization of patient records lacks needed attention to the potential effects of such systems on the patients. This paper argues for a broader understanding of the normative aspects involved in the design and implementation of electronic patient records (EPRs). It suggests three supplemental dimensions for normative analysis of EPR design relevant to the position of the patient: presence, agency, and identity. These dimension are discussed and illustrated as concepts connecting ethical dimensions of patienthood with design features of EPRs.

Digital innovation in education – as in any other sector – is not only about developing and implementing novel ideas, but also about having these ideas effectively used as well as widely accepted and adopted, so that many students can benefit from innovations improving education. Effectiveness, transferability and scalability cannot be added afterwards; it must be integrated from the start in the design, development and implementation processes, as is proposed in the movement towards evidenceinformed practice (EIP). The impact an educational innovation has on the values of various stakeholders is often overlooked. Value Sensitive Design (VSD) is an approach to integrate values in technological design. In this paper we discuss how EIP and VSD may be combined into an integrated approach to digital innovation in education, which we call value-informed innovation. This approach not only considers educational effectiveness, but also incorporates the innovation’s impact on human values, its scalability and transferability to other contexts. We illustrate the integrated approach with an example case of an educational innovation involving digital peer feedback.

The relationship between law and technology in the dimension of time is a popular theme in legal and policy circles, usually recurring as a critique of outdated laws. In these debates, law is most often portrayed as falling behind technology as both travel together along the dimension of time. While such images simplify the relationship between law and technological change, they reflect some insight into the challenge faced in ensuring law remains relevant, appropriate, comprehensive, well-adapted and clear in the face of an ever-evolving socio-legal-technical landscape. Law’s struggle in the face of socio-technical change has been referred to as the pacing problem or the challenge of regulatory connection. A phenomenon that receives much less attention in these popular debates is the temporal impact of attempts to embed the law and social values into technological design. There are a variety of terms that capture ideas around design-based regulation, each with different foci and associated literature. For example, ‘value sensitive design’ focuses on the design process, while ‘compliance by design’ focuses on extracting, modelling and implementing legal requirements but both are about using architecture and processes to achieve a particular effect (respecting values or ensuring compliance with law). The idea of embedding law, values or preferences into technical design choices and business processes is rarely subjected to similar time-inspired critiques despite the fact that technology and procedures can be designed around outdated understandings of legal requirements and policy goals. Whether technology design decisions are based on technical, commercial, legal or regulatory objectives and requirements (or combinations thereof), they may come to be seen as obsolete as those objectives and requirements evolve. Therefore, the challenge of staying up-to-date or continuing to fit in an evolving world is not only a legal challenge. Technology can also fail to meet evolving legal requirements or fail to adapt seamlessly to other technical elements within systems as the broader socio-legal environment evolves. In particular, law can impose particular demands on technology, so that it is called on to catch up.