In this contribution, I explore why and how value experiences are relevant to Design for Values. In a value experience, something seems to the experiencer to be valuable (or disvaluable). Design for Values is a design approach that aims at systematically integrating value of moral importance in (technological) design.

Most approaches for accounting for values in design, for example value-sensitive design or ethics-by-design, assume that the values to be considered in design are static and these approaches do not pay (explicit) attention to the role of value experiences in design. I will argue that accounting for value experiences in design enriches such approaches and also allows us to deal better with instances of value change.

Value experiences are relevant to Design for Values in at least three ways: 1) as a source of values to be considered in design, 2) as a source of validation, regarding whether a proposed design is aligned with the values it claims to respect and 3) as a source of value change and conceptual disruption.

New value experiences generated by the (experimental) use of new technology may sometimes lead to changes in value beliefs and/or disrupt current conceptual understandings of values. For example, Google Glass seems to have disrupted the understanding of privacy in informational terms, and the experience of friendship online may have disrupted the traditional notion of friendship. Such cases, through generated novel value experiences, may thus trigger value change, here understood as a change in value beliefs or value concepts. 

I explore how we can more systematically account for value experiences in Design for Values and how this might help to better anticipate or deal with value change in design.

This presentation is part of the panel Value Experiences & Technomoral Deliberation