Research On Value Sensitive Technical Design

Value Sensitive Design is an innovative approach of technical design that in order to comply with the rapid technological changes of information age and solve the ethical issues that emerging in the field of information technology effectively.VSD was raised by Batya Friedman, the Professor of Information school in Washington University. VSD advocates that the designers should consider both the value of technical usefulness and the extensive inclusion of human values in the technical design phase. These values must be reflected effectively in the design of technology products.This approach and design idea also attracts much attention of the scholars in the field of philosophy of technology and ethics of technology of "Dutch School".Value sensitive design particularly emphasizes value with moral import, including human welfare, dignity, privacy, security, informed consent, freedom from bias,moral responsibility, accountability, honesty, and democracy. The empirical turn after the declination of classic philosophy of technology provided a platform for the advent of VSD:Philosophy of technology is more concerned with technical issues relating to technical design; technical design has become an important referent of contemporary philosophy of technology development, and the ethical demands of technical design is an important aspect of it. The analysis of value in VSD was under the technical ethics perspective. For the technical design activities have become increasingly complex and social, when the same value subject facing with the choice of value or the interests of the main demands of different value subjects in conflict that requires trade-offs, technical design activities should be based on a certain value staff order to determine the value of the applicable class or priority applicable value, designers should determine the applicable value based on the value of certain class or priority order value applicable.Therefor, it is necessary for all stakeholders to participate in the technical design process, and help promoting technical design healthier and more humanized.Assuming the technical design process relating to ethical values, VSD is a theoretically grounded approach to the design of technology that accounts for human values in a principled and comprehensive manner throughout the design process. Materializing Morality, Persuasive Technology, Kansei Engineering are the similar methods and concepts with VSD in the field of industrial and social design. VSD employs an integrative and iterative tripartite methodology, consisting of conceptual, empirical, and technical investigations. Conceptual investigations comprise philosophically informed analyses of the central constructs and issues under investigation. Empirical investigations focus on the human response to the technical artifacts, and on the larger social context in which the technology is situated. Technical investigations can focus on the design of systems as well as on the analysis of the properties of existing technology.VSD advocates that technical artifacts should be designed and adjusted forwardly in the early stage of technical design. Value scope and stakeholders in technical design have been distinguished and expanded. Although there are some queries of Technocratic and limitations in the application, VSD is an innovative approach which implies great significance in practice. We explicate VSD by drawing on two case studies. The first study concerns human values and security for Wireless Implantable Medical Devices. The second study concerns information and control of web browsers cookies implicating the value of privacy and informed consent.VSD originated in American and Europe whose technical and cultural background have huge differences with China. Many comparative studies,such as technical and cultural traditions,technological revolution and modern technology innovation of East and West were carried out. There is a relative study of VSD and Control Technique by Tao--the Chinese traditional techniques ethical thought. Confucianism has the special moral consciousness which was rooted in the Chinese history, and also associated with its universal moral considerations. The unity of Benevolence as the core ethical system and Propriety as a specific code of conduct would ease the moral relativism dilemma of VSD. To practice VSD in China based on Chinese traditional and ethical resources, we should combine with People-oriented, Democracy, Harmony and other values of socialism with Chinese characteristics to guide the Chinese technical design practice effectively. Our goal is to achieve the post-mover advantage of VSD study in China.