About the Delft Design for Values Institute - Delft Design for Values Institute

Our vision:

Why we should Design for Values

Societal challenges require dealing with …

The 21st century is characterized by rapid change and fast paced technological development. Countries are struggling to face economic, social, political and environmental challenges. For example, people are migrating to mega-cities, natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and changes in the global climate are becoming intensely palpable.

…the double-edged sword of technology

Breakthroughs in science and technology offer hope for the betterment of the planet and the human condition. However, they also raise ethical questions and societal debates on the social implications and desirability of these technological and scientific advances, and about the distributive justice of access to beneficial forms of technology.

Integrating moral & social values…

If we want to tackle the societal challenges that we face in the 21st century and ensure that new technologies benefit rather than endanger humankind and the planet, we need to design them for values. We need to integrate moral and social values from the very start in the design process of new systems, products and services.

… to generate acceptance & acceptability.

Integrating moral and social values – like justice, autonomy and sustainability – will help to design technologies that are both

morally acceptable (that respect relevant moral values such as sustainability, beneficence and justice)
socially accepted (that address the values and needs of relevant stakeholders)

What is Design for Values?

Design for Values…

is a design approach aimed at integrating values – like justice, sustainability, autonomy, privacy and security – in all stages of the design process. It foregrounds sensitivity to values instead of seeing them as a mere constraint at the end of a design process. It also promotes values through a design approach, aimed at finding new creative solutions for societal and moral challenges.
aims at both social acceptance and moral acceptability of designed products, systems and services. Therefore, it critically scrutinizes stakeholder values for their moral acceptability.
requires a transdisciplinary approach that involves different academic disciplines, societal stakeholders and industry. It combines expertise in design, engineering, social sciences and philosophy. It requires insight into the nature of values, reliable operationalizations of values, the translation of values into design options, and methods to assess the consequences of different design options to compare them with the target values.

What is Design for Values?

In the last few decades, researchers from TU Delft have internationally played a prominent role in (further) developing the design for values approach. An example is the Handbook of Ethics, Values and Technological Design.

Mission of the DDfV Institute

The mission of the Delft Design for Values (DDfV) Institute is to…

be the globally leading knowledge institute in design for values.
take a leading role (nationally as well as internationally) in the promotion and diffusion of the design for values approach across academic disciplines and application areas.
promote and facilitate the exchange of design for values expertise and experience within TU Delft, nationally, and internationally to foster education and research.
ensure in the long term that all TU Delft engineers, researchers and students can design for values, and can account for how they do so and for the choices they make in the process.

DDfV's contribution to the societal mission of TU Delft

The DDfV Institute contributes to the realization of the mission of TU Delft to “to make a significant contribution towards a sustainable society” and to train “scientists and engineers with a genuine commitment to society” in order to contribute to “technological innovations with both economic and social value”.

Founding faculties

The Delft Design for Values (DDfV) Institute is an initiative in which five of the eight faculties of Delft University of Technology collaborate:

Why establish a Design for Values Institute?

Design for values requires the integration of different kinds of expertise and skills. It requires knowledge of and expertise in design, philosophical knowledge of values and relevant moral theories, and domain knowledge of specific technologies. TU Delft is uniquely positioned to host the Design for Values Institute; It is well known for its excellence in engineering and design, but it also has unique expertise in philosophy and ethics of technology.