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competing, stakeholder values. The cookies project illustrates the complex interaction between
usability and human values (Feature 5): Early versions of the system supported informed consent
at the expense of usability, requiring additional work to develop a system that was both usable and
provided reasonable support for informed consent. The Room with a View work considers and
takes seriously both direct and indirect stakeholders (Feature 6): the occupants of the inside office
(“the watchers”), and passersby in the plaza (“the watched”). Value Sensitive Design's position
that values are neither inscribed into technology nor simply transmitted by social forces (Feature
7) is illustrated by UrbanSim: the system by itself is certainly not neutral with respect to the dem-
ocratic process, but at the same time does not on its own ensure democratic decision making on
land use and transportation issues. Finally, the proposition that certain values are universally held,
but play out in very different ways in different cultures and different times (Feature 8), is illus-
trated by the Room with a View project: The work is informed by a substantial body of work on
the importance of privacy in all cultures (for example, the deep connection between privacy and
self-identity), but concerns about privacy in public places play out in a specific way in the United
States, and might do so quite differently in another cultural context.
We could draw out additional examples that illustrate Value Sensitive Design's constellation of
features, both from the three case studies presented in “Value Sensitive Design's Constellation of
Features,” earlier in this chapter, and in other projects; but hope that this short description demon-
strates the unique contribution that Value Sensitive Design can make to the design of technology.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR USING VALUE SENSITIVE DESIGN
One natural question with Value Sensitive Design is, “How exactly do I do it?” In this section we
offer some practical suggestions.
Start with a Value, Technology, or Context of Use
Any of these three core aspects—a value, technology, or context of use—easily motivates Value
Sensitive Design. We suggest starting with the aspect that is most central to your work and inter-
ests. In the case of informed consent and cookies, for example, Friedman et al. began with a value
of central interest (informed consent) and moved from that value to its implications for Web
browser design. In the case of UrbanSim, Borning et al. began with a technology (urban simula-
tion) and a context of use (the urban planning process); upon inspection of those two, values
issues quickly came to the fore.
Identify Direct and Indirect Stakeholders
As part of the initial conceptual investigation, systematically identify direct and indirect stake-
holders. Recall that direct stakeholders are those individuals who interact directly with the tech-
nology or with the technology's output. Indirect stakeholders are those individuals who are also
impacted by the system, though they never interact directly with it. In addition, it is worthwhile to
recognize the following:
• Within each of these two overarching categories of stakeholders, there may be several sub-
groups.
• A single individual may be a member of more than one stakeholder group or subgroup. For
example, in the UrbanSim project, an individual who works as an urban planner and lives in
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