How do we adjust our solution to match new values and norms?
Adjust design to new values and norms
What is the result of this step?
In this step human values are incorporated into the design process. It can lead to a different design of the technology or prototype.
Why?
It is the purpose of Value Sensitive Design to integrate values in design, in order to help make the product more acceptable to end-users.
How?
By adjusting your design or prototype to the values in the iterative stages of design. Based on the requirements identified in the previous step, you look for the technical possibilities to realize the values and you adapt the design of the technology. Thus in this step you adjust the technology design or prototype to match the values and norms identified in all previous steps (see box 9 for an example). If not all values can be realised in the design of the technology, you can also focus on changing the environment or social context in which the technology will be used instead of adapting the design or technology.
Box 9: Example
How values changed
the design of the technology application
Box 9
Example how certain values changed
the design of the technology application
The value ‘accountability’ was considered very important for the design of a drone for military use. This value is translated into the norms 'always make sure that decision-making is transparent' and 'provide insight into the algorithm', which allow users to understand the choices made by the autonomous weapon. In this way, the actions can be traced and justified (see figure below).
The norm 'transparency of the decision making' has led to the following additions to the design requirements: i) offer transparent insight into the decision tree, ii) present the decision variables of the autonomous weapons used (for example trade-offs in collateral damage percentages of different attack scenarios) to provide insight into the proportionality of an attack; iii) make sure that the autonomous weapon presents the sensor information - for example imagery of the site - to show that it makes a correct distinction between military personnel and civilians.
In order to meet the norm ‘provide insight into the algorithm’, an autonomous weapon must be designed with three features that were not included before: 1) a screen as user interface showing the algorithm in 2) a humanly readable form and 3) the functionality to download the changes made by the algorithm as part of its machine learning skills that can be investigated by an independent party e.g. a United Nations war tribunal (Verdiesen, 2017).
