VALUE SENSITIVE DESIGN AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS - Human-Computer Interaction and Management Information Systems: Foundations - page 330

C HAPTER 16
VALUE SENSITIVE DESIGN AND
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
B AT YA F RIEDMAN , P ETER H. K AHN , J R ., AND A LAN B ORNING
Abstract: Value Sensitive Design is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technol-
ogy that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the
design process. It employs an integrative and iterative tripartite methodology, consisting of con-
ceptual, empirical, and technical investigations. We explicate Value Sensitive Design by drawing
on three case studies. The first study concerns information and control of Web browser cookies,
implicating the value of informed consent. The second study concerns using high-definition
plasma displays in an office environment to provide a “window” to the outside world, implicating
the values of physical and psychological well-being and privacy in public spaces. The third study
concerns an integrated land use, transportation, and environmental simulation system to support
public deliberation and debate on major land use and transportation decisions, implicating the
values of fairness, accountability, and support for the democratic process, as well as a highly
diverse range of values that might be held by different stakeholders, such as environmental sus-
tainability, opportunities for business expansion, or walkable neighborhoods. We conclude with
direct and practical suggestions for how to engage in Value Sensitive Design.
Keywords: Computers and Society, Cookies, Design Methods, Ethics, Human Values, Informed
Consent, Interface Design, Interaction Design, Privacy, Simulation, Security, Social Computing,
Surveillance, Urban Development, Value Sensitive Design, Values in Design, Web Browsers
INTRODUCTION
There is a long-standing interest in designing information and computational systems that support
enduring human values. Researchers have focused, for example, on the value of privacy (Ackerman
and Cranor, 1999; Agre and Rotenberg, 1998; Fuchs, 1999; Jancke et al., 2001; Palen and Grudin,
2003; Tang, 1997), ownership and property (Lipinski and Britz, 2000), physical welfare (Leveson,
1991), freedom from bias (Friedman and Nissenbaum, 1996), universal usability (Shneiderman,
1999, 2000; Thomas, 1997), autonomy (Suchman, 1994; Winograd, 1994), informed consent (Millett
et al., 2001), and trust (Fogg and Tseng, 1999; Palen and Grudin, 2003; Riegelsberger and Sasse,
2002; Rocco, 1998; Zheng et al., 2001). Still, there is a need for an overarching theoretical and
methodological framework with which to handle the value dimensions of design work.
Value Sensitive Design is one effort to provide such a framework—for example, Friedman
(1997a), Friedman and Kahn (2003), Friedman and Nissenbaum (1996), Hagman et al. (2003),
Nissenbaum (1998), Tang (1997), and Thomas (1997). Our goal in this paper is to provide an
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