🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the challenge that values and potential harms in early AI design are often too abstract or addressed too late to effectively inform decision-making. To bridge this gap, the authors employ a Research through Design (RtD) approach, integrating participatory design, card sorting, and Value Sensitive Design (VSD) to develop a toolkit comprising an AI capabilities library, 24 value–harm cards, and value–tension maps. This toolkit uniquely embeds values and harms into the initial stages of AI design through structured, visual representations, introducing “productive friction” to stimulate ethical reflection and explicitly surface value tensions to support deliberation. Evaluation via 30 questionnaires and 12 in-depth interviews demonstrates that the toolkit is clear and usable, significantly enhancing designers’ abilities to identify, anticipate, and transparently discuss ethical issues.
📝 Abstract
Early-stage concept envisioning is a critical juncture in AI design, shaping how designers frame problems and the decisions that follow. Yet values and potential harms are often too abstract or addressed too late to meaningfully shape design. Using a Research-through-Design (RtD) approach, we developed the AI Concept Envisioning Toolkit, comprising an AI Capability Library, 24 Value--Harm Cards, and a Value--Tension Map, to support reasoning by juxtaposing values and harms within AI technical capabilities. Through a survey with 30 designers and in-depth interviews with 12 designers, we find that the toolkit is clear and perceived as valuable, and that it encourages value reflection, helps anticipate potential harms, and makes ethical considerations more transparent in early-stage design. We reflect on our design process and discuss design approaches for tools that promote reflection on values and potential harms, surface and navigate value tensions, and introduce productive friction throughout design workflows.