Critically Engaging with Embedded Values through Constrained Technology Design

Abstract

The rise of gig economy platforms has highlighted the impact platform and algorithm design can have upon workers' experiences. This paper reports on an extended series of collaborative design engagements with a private company and an international nongovernment organisation during the production of an Interactive Voice Response component for a gig economy platform. We present the fndings of a design ethnography undertaken during this process, and discuss how design decisions refect how each party's values, motivations and assumptions are embedded within the fnal technology. There exists a need for simple methods to assist practitioners to surface and critically engage with the disparate values, priorities and assumptions held by the system's stakeholders. We demonstrate that this can be done during the production of realworld systems through the application of constrained design as a values lever, and discuss how constraint-based values levers can support critical refection, even in resource-constrained commercial development contexts. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → HCI design and evaluation methods; User centered design.