HuValue: A Toolkit to Facilitate Considering Various Human Values in a Design Process

Abstract

Human values play an integral role in any design that aims to improve the quality of human life. To support designers’ addressing human values in their design, we created a design tool based on a comprehensive value framework. This tool helps to raise designers’ awareness about human values and provide tangible materials to actively use selected values in a design process. An experimental study with design students showed that the project groups that had been supported with this tool addressed human values in their design concepts significantly stronger compared to the control groups. Results of the evaluation indicate that the tool is not only applicable in a design process but also effective at enriching design concepts with human values.