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INFO/STS 4240/5240: Designing Technologies for Social Impact (DTSI)

Course Description

Instructors: Prof. Chris Csíkszentmihályi (starring special guest Prof. Phoebe Sengers)
Lecture: Tu, Th 1:25pm-2:40pm Statler Hall 185 Credits 4, Letter Grade. Pre/Corequisites: None. Sections: Fridays, various times and locations

The social impact of technologies is typically thought about fairly late, if ever, in the design process. Even though it can be difficult for designers to predict what effects technologies will have, design decisions always “lock in” particular social values early on. In this course, we will draw on science & technology studies, technology design, and the arts to analyze the values embodied in technology design, and to design technologies that promote positive social impact. We do this by learning how to develop arguments about technologies — hypotheses that can be discussed, prototyped, and proven or refuted. These arguments take different forms in different assignments, but most take the form of either text or a design.

Key questions we’ll address over the semester include:

• How can we “read” what social and cultural values a technology design consciously or unconsciously promotes?
• How and to what degree can social impact be “written into” a technology?
• How can I intentionally embed social and cultural values into my designs?

Throughout the course, through readings and lectures, we’ll learn from a variety of arguments that others have made about technology and values. Each module contains one or two example “design strategies” that others have used and that you’ll be able to draw from in your future life and career. Throughout the course you’ll have the opportunity to create many conceptual designs, in dialog with the readings and lectures, in order to flex your creative and analytical skills.

Technical background is not needed for this course, but may be drawn upon if you have it.

Course Philosophy

Across the contemporary world, technologies are an intimate part of our daily lives, and often frame one’s choices. The act of designing technologies does not simply create efficiencies or functionality; it also offers possibilities for (and constraints on) our possibile actions, ways of looking at the world, and modes through which we can relate to one another. Designs, intentionally or not, embody (and legislate) values -– ones our communities of users sometimes accept, sometimes reject, sometimes build on, and sometimes alter.

This course will equip students to find their own answers to three key questions:

1. What values do specific technology designs embody, and how and to what extent do they do so? We will look at current and historical case studies of design interventions to identify ways in which technologies can, intentionally or unintentionally, promote specific values and to analyze how those values play out in practice in the complex worlds of everyday life.
2. How and to what extent is it possible to design technologies to reflect specific values? We will examine and practice a variety of design strategies (methods) intended to incorporate values in design, and analyze their benefits and drawbacks.
3. How can I intentionally embed social and cultural values into my designs? All through the semester, through workbooks and miniprojects, students submit designs and receive feedback on them. These designs are highly conceptual, responding to social and cultural arguments from course readings, and in turn making their own arguments. Through this process students will confront the power of designers to enable or constrain their user’s choices, essentially rewriting society and culture.

These questions cross between two domains which are not often brought into conversation in undergraduate education: technology design and the social, cultural, historical, and political analysis of technologies. In this course, we will develop or improve a facility to think, make arguments, and design using techniques from critically-informed technology analysis. This hybrid approach borrows and blends ideas and techniques from human-computer interaction, engineering, product design, science & technology studies, and the arts. This course is expected to serve students from engineering, the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts and design. Even if a student doesn’t go into design, they are subject to countless design decisions, and the course serves to establish a form of literacy in understanding the values behind those decisions. If you are interested in reflecting on and improving the role of technology in society, you’re in the right place.

This course is oriented to an advanced undergraduate and master’s student audience. An ability to read critically and willingness to take intellectual risks are essential in this course.

DTSI facilitates expertise in one area of design: the connection between values and design. It offers an introduction to many design strategies, and dozens of chances to practice conceptual designs. It will undoubtedly transform your relationship to technology and design, but it won’t be the only class you need to become a good designer.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Articulate how and to what extent values are built into designed artifacts in early stages of the design process
• Identify relevant values issues that arise in a particular technology design
• Use the design workbook method to explore social implications of design and to ideate new design possibilities
• Appropriately deploy a variety of design strategies to explore and address values issues in different contexts and at different scales
• Weigh the possibilities and limits of different strategies for considering values in design, and identify values commitments inherent in these design strategies themselves
• Create technology designs that reflect varying value commitments in response to a design brief
• Recognize and comment on issues in values and design in everyday life
• Construct a compelling argument that builds on documented evidence and the arguments of others

5240

Graduate students taking this course are registered in 5240, which covers everything in 4240 but adds a parallel layer to the course of 1) understanding the organizational aspect of design for social impact: who is making the design and why? What are the relationships between various entity models (e.g. individual, corporate, non-profit, F/LOSS) and the sorts of designs and impacts they can foster? And 2) extra assignments to codify and convey that understanding. For more details check the 5240 tab above.

For further information

You can explore the rest of the syllabus through the navbar at the top of this page by clicking on the other syllabus topics. If you have questions, please use our Ed Discussion channels.

You can download the full syllabus with all information in a print-friendly format.

Important Note: This syllabus is written in good faith to indicate as well as possible the arc of the course. Things may change, especially at the beginning of the semester.