Batya Friedman

Professor,
The Information School
University of Washington

Date: 7 July 2021, Wednesday, 10.30AM (rescheduled from 1 June 2021)
Venue: Online / ZOOM

Tools and technologies are fundamental to the human condition. They do no less than create and structure the conditions in which we live, express ourselves, enact society, and experience what it means to be human. They are also the result of our moral and technical imaginations. Yet, with our limited view, it is not at all obvious how to design tools and technology so that they are more likely to support the actions, relationships, institutions, and experiences that human beings care deeply about - a life and society of human flourishing. Value Sensitive Design (VSD) was developed as an approach to address this challenge from within technical design processes.

In this talk, I will provide an introduction to Value Sensitive Design, foregrounding human values in the technical design process. My remarks will situate VSD within a broader discourse on sociotechnical systems and present VSD's core theoretical constructs. Then I will introduce some methods from VSD, along the way demonstrating two methods - Envisioning Cards and value scenarios - in the context of a design activity. Next I'll discuss some current examples of applying VSD, first to the design of robots for healthcare and then to the invisible materiality of information technology. In doing so, I will explore technology trends at the cusp of the 21st century from a VSD perspective. Thinking longer-term and systemically, I will bring forward a range of potential challenges and design opportunities in light of these trends. My comments will engage individual lives, society writ large, what it means to be human, the planet and beyond.

Speaker Bio

Batya Friedman is Professor in the Information School and holds adjunct appointments in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. She co-directs the Value Sensitive Design Lab and the UW Tech Policy Lab.

Batya pioneered value sensitive design (VSD), an approach to account for human values in the design of information systems. First developed in human-computer interaction, VSD has since been used in architecture, civil engineering, computer security, energy, human-robotic interaction, information management, legal theory, and moral philosophy, transportation and urban planning. She is currently working on multi-lifespan design and on methods for envisioning - imagining new ideas for leveraging information systems to shape our futures. Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal is a first project in this multi-lifespan design research program. Her 2019 MIT Press book co-authored with David Hendry provides a comprehensive account of value sensitive design and is titled Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination. In 2012 Batya received the ACM-SIGCHI Social Impact Award and the University Faculty Lecturer award at the University of Washington, in 2019 was inducted into the CHI Academy, and in 2020 received an honorary doctorate from Delft University of Technology. She received both her B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.