Value Sensitive Design

Innovating User Value: The Interrelations of Business Model Innovation, Design (Thinking) and the Production of Meaning – A Status-quo of the Current State of Research

by Jan Schmiedgen

Masters Thesis - 2011

We live in a hyper-competitive world, where whole industries either shift towards services or become obsolete due to... more We live in a hyper-competitive world, where whole industries either shift towards services or become obsolete due to new market entrants, technologies or even social practices. A world, where permanent interactions with customers, fast time-to-market, and the ability to innovate »right« (e.g. the right thing or value) are the key to corporate success. On that score the business sphere isn't getting tired of emphasizing the need for strategic innovation (which means »creating superior customer value«, business model innovations or even the disruption and creation of new markets).

This paper uncovers some of the often overlooked links of design (design thinking, design- driven innovation and service design) to strategic innovation through the lens of »customer value«. It will do so by ...

1) Disenchanting the big corporate rhetoric on above claims by showing that prevailing and too one-sided understandings of strategy and innovation, rather reinforce than escape old industry paradigms.

2) Examining designs still undervalued contributions to strategy-making by approaching business challenges with a user/value-centric and radical service logic.

3) Showing that every dimension of strategic innovation culminates in the concept of perceived user value and meaning, which gets reviewed in detail (dimensions, forms, proper- ties), especially with regards to constructing value propositions.

4) Arguing that the current service design and business model innovation discourses cannot be negotiated separately, as they may be good methodological complements.

So when speaking about the innovation of value for the customer, the paper argues, the above stated and seemingly separated fields intersect. Therefore their most apparent systemic connections and the facilitation of value creation by design are outlined and discussed.

Issues and Challenges in Dynamic Systems Design and Engineering – A Value-Oriented Approach

by Joao Pombinho

presented at EIS 2011 - Delft, The Netherlands

Modeling organizations as complex systems in permanent evolution, as an answer to change dynamics, is an increasing... more Modeling organizations as complex systems in permanent evolution, as an answer to change dynamics, is an increasing challenge. Particularly, there is a lack of an integrated perspective that is generally and recursively applicable to organization chains, organizations and sub-organizations of several types and sizes. Our research aims to answer how to incorporate purpose into system development activities, in a way that promotes value-orientation and innovation. Three main conceptual challenges were identified: 1) the lack of capacity to view a system, and the services it provides, integrated in different value chains; 2) the separation of the instance of a system from the purpose behind its design; and 3) the conceptual unidirectionality of the system development process. In this paper, we present the proposal of rationalizing system design and engineering decisions with value-orientation, materialized in a set of principles and a four-layer framework: System, Service, Market (Value) and Problem Solving (Purpose).

Design for development: A capability approach

by Ilse Oosterlaken

Design Issues, vol. 25, issue 4 (Autumn 2009).

In this article I suggest a ‘capability approach’ towards designing for society, and particularly, the world’s poor. I... more In this article I suggest a ‘capability approach’ towards designing for society, and particularly, the world’s poor. I will explain that this approach assigns a central place to human capabilities in our discussions of justice and development and criticizes a focus on utility or preference satisfaction. In the literature on the capability approach technical artifacts have hardly been acknowledged as an input for human capabilities, although Sen and some other authors sometimes refer to the example of a bicycle that expand one’s capabilities to move about. Using Bijker’s analysis of the history of the development of the bicycle, I argue that the details of design are very important for an artifact’s impact on human capabilities. In current design practice the focus is, however, too much on things like usability and user satisfaction. Where Buchanan has argued that design should rather find its ultimate ground in human rights and human dignity, I propose human capabilities as an alternative. Due to the functionalistic orientation of the capability approach, this alternative may be more fruitful and appealing to for designers. Analogue to ‘value sensitive design’ – an emerging approach in the ethics of technology - we should thus look into the possibility of ‘capability sensitive design’. What this entails exactly should be investigated, but it is likely that it will turn out to have commonalities with existing design movements like participatory design and universal design. The article ends with some suggestions for further research on a capability approach of design.

Things We Value

by Elisa Giaccardi

published in 'Interactions' 18:1 (January-February 2011), 17-21.

The article inaugurates the 'On Heritage' Forum that I edit for ACM Interactions. 'On Heritage' aims to offer and... more The article inaugurates the 'On Heritage' Forum that I edit for ACM Interactions. 'On Heritage' aims to offer and promote a rich discussion at the intersection of art, performance, and culture that expands the boundaries of HCI, while broadening our understanding of how things of the past come to matter in the present. Submissions are welcome!

On Pause and Duration, or: The Design of Heritage Experience

by Elisa Giaccardi

BCS HCI Conference 2011, July 6-8, Newcastle, UK.

This paper investigates ‘pause’ and ‘duration’ as conceptual resources to expand current design approaches to place,... more This paper investigates ‘pause’ and ‘duration’ as conceptual resources to expand current design approaches to place, technology, and experience in museums to the extended temporality of heritage practice. The author strives to understand ‘through design’ how we come to value objects, places and events through multiple and repeated interactions. In doing so, the author contributes to expand the boundaries of interaction design beyond individuals acting ‘in the moment’ (pause) to individuals and communities participating ‘across time’ (duration) in the cultural production of memory and identity.

Tecnología y valores periodísticos: Implicaciones de la ética informática para el periodismo digital

by Omar V. Rosas

Publicado en "La ética de la comunicación a comienzos del siglo XXI". Actas del I Congreso Internacional de Etica de la Comunicacion. Universidad de Sevilla, 2011.