Designing for Dignity

Dignity-Centered Design: Rethinking Design for All

By Fatima-Zahra Abou Eddahab-Burke

I have this design concept that I really want to develop and that I call “design for dignity”. For me, dignity is the most important value out there and I want to center my research around it. We always consider it to be there which is not always the case.

One example is the refugees in the Netherlands, although the country provided them with a safe place and integrated them into the society they still lost their dignity in the process, and by talking to some of them, it is true that they were supported but they don’t feel at the same level as the people in the NL because they are considered refugees and their dignity is deeply touched because lots of them had a good life before and good degrees. So, I would like to work on designing systems where people feel dignified. This is just one example out of many.

 I have a background in industrial design (I had my PhD from IO under the supervision of Prof. Imre Horváth), therefore I am always interested in design principles and methodologies as well as systems’ design. I am contacting you because I am interested in having a small discussion with you knowing your great expertise and your role as a scientific director of Delft Design for Values Institute, because I would like to get your opinion about design for dignity. Also, I want to get insights from you that will help me define it and translate it into a design requirement. Also, I want to know if this is something the Institute will be interested in considering.

What is your background?

I’m Moroccan. I am a mechanical engineer and a designer. I came to the Netherlands in 2016 to do my PhD in the Industrial design engineering faculty of TU Delft. My project was related to software design. I developed a data analytics toolbox to support white good designers in product enhancement using middle-of-life data generalized by products.  Then I did my Postdoc in Wageningen, on developing a new farming concept called technology-4-ecology, where technology has a new role of supporting ecology. This concept is the center of designing next-generation farming systems (arable, horticulture and dairy farming). I joined TBM last November, in the MAS department, system engineering and simulation section. I’m interested in participatory design, systems engineering, design principles, human well-being, cyber-physical systems, design for dignity concept development, and teaching/ education.

What drove you to study designing for human dignity?

During the participatory systems course, students had to design an informative platform for citizens in a community in Rotterdam, taking into consideration the values of inhabitants. One of the things I noticed is that the students assumed that is the way to go is a digital platform, and not a place to meet for the community. This made me realize that they started from their own values and not actually those of the citizens. For me this decision automatically excludes many people in the community. For instance, elderly people cannot understand new technologies or don´t have access to them, therefore using the digital platform to be informed about what is happening in their neighborhood need to be done via someone else. Maybe, they will depend on younger generations to explain the use of the platform, which takes away their autonomy, maybe it makes them question their self-worth etc. leading to putting their dignity at stake.

By taking some time to think about this whole situation, I realized that human dignity should be considered by designers when developing systems that interact with the human. In relation to this digital platform, why can’t we then design it in a way that is self-aware of the user, and self-adaptive to him? How can we design such systems that respect dignity? What is challenging about designing for dignity is that it is a dynamic value. The question is then: when we design for dignity, who’s perspective should we consider? Most work done in dignity is in healthcare and nursing homes, but not much elsewhere.

Why design for values?

I have a background in mechanical engineering and industrial design, So I have always focused on the technical requirements, which I believe is not enough when we move from designing (parts of) products into designing socio-technical systems. For me systems are by definition value-based. So designing them, should be value-based as well. What I am offering here, is a new value to focus on, to enhance human well-being. For this reason, I need to collaborate with people with philosophical or ethical backgrounds to support each other translating dignity into system requirements (by working in a variety of cases and generalize afterwards). I started working on a position paper to raise awareness of the need of this when we design systems. I also now, work on a Convergence project introducing Design for dignity (D4D) as a way of rethinking/ redefining human well-being.

Why do you think dignity is the most important value?

Human dignity, while challenging to define precisely, holds immense significance in our lives, inter alia as a fundament of human rights. Human dignity is often regarded as the most fundamental and powerful value. It is the state of being worthy of honor or respect, encompassing the moral right not to be humiliated or an intrinsic characteristic perceived mentally. Dignity intertwines with respect, equity, autonomy, freedom, trust, honor, and acknowledgment of usefulness and importance. Dignity deemed an inherent feature of all human beings is ideally universal. However, we contend that real-world circumstances can challenge this universality. We consider dignity as the most crucial human value for daily well-being even when life gets challenging. That is why we believe that it is time for it to be further investigated and be added as a corps value in systems design.

What is dignity?

There is not much done related to it. It is assumed to be something all human beings have, but I don’t believe that’s the case. It is related to autonomy, honor and respect, trust… the question is: How can we combine them? Can we design for all these values at the same time? It’s an evolving and context-dependent value. That raises complexity.

What cases are you working on?

In the Convergence project “D4D: rethinking human well-being” I am working on a governmental digital platform that is self-adaptive to the user, and that allows citizens from different backgrounds and abilities be equally informed and take action in their neighborhoods.

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Fatima-Zahra Abou Eddahab-Burke

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