Value Sensitive Design, second edition: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination

by Batya Friedman, David G. Hendry

Overview

A new edition of the definitive guide to value sensitive design—chock full of theory, design methods, and hands-on studios and applications for practice.

In the midst of technological, environmental, and social turmoil, engineers, policymakers, and designers of all kinds seek approaches to responsible innovation, approaches that foreground human values. How do we make good on responsible AI and social media? On sustainable agriculture, energy, healthcare, and transportation systems? How do we develop inclusive and constructive tech policy? Value sensitive design offers a comprehensive approach for making progress on society’s toughest engineering and technical design problems, including practical methods for catalyzing and strengthening designers’ moral and technical imaginations.

The second edition of Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination by Batya Friedman and David Hendry expands upon the first and includes 40 percent new material, including:

• 8 new hands-on instructional studios: for professional development and classroom use that provide practical experience with value sensitive design methods and skills
• 16 Envisioning Cards from the full toolkit: used throughout the instructional studios
• 5 new methods: data statements, diverse voices, values hierarchy, Metaphor Cards, and Security Cards (22 total methods)
• 3 new application domains: bias in computing and information systems, materials and imagination, and tech policy (13 total application domains)
• New theory about value sensitive design as a formative theory and new explication of the tripartite methodology in terms of robots in healthcare

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262553254
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	03/31/2026
Pages:	502
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Batya Friedman is Professor Emerita in the Information School, University of Washington, where she codirects the Value Sensitive Design Lab.

David G. Hendry is Associate Professor in the Information School, University of Washington, where he codirects the Value Sensitive Design Lab.

Editorial Reviews

ENDORSEMENTS

"In developing value sensitive design, Friedman, Hendry, and colleagues pioneered practical, systematic tools for exploring the moral dimensions of design practice. Striving for ‘progress, not perfection,’ this new edition expands the toolkit at a moment when the topics are more pressing than ever. It deserves to be at the center of any digital design program.”
—Paul Dourish, author of The Stuff of Bits

“A timely and insightful book appropriately positioning humanity at the forefront of rapidly advancing technologies. The text is at once critical and cautionary yet optimistic with actionable studios and examples for education and practice applications.”
—Bruce Hanington, author of Universal Methods of Design

From the Publisher