Normas e valores em design: teorias, artefatos e métodos

Resumo

Different studies and initiatives intended to identify, discuss and inspire the research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) for the coming years have indicated a new moment in the area. This new moment requires HCI theories, methods and practices to be rethought in order to consider aspects that are difficult to be measured and identified, such as values and culture. However, although recognized as important issues in the design of solutions for a society mediated by Information and Communication Technologies, these aspects have been traditionally left on the margin of approaches for technology development, and are hardly addressed in the Computer Science and Information Technology curricula. Norms are a key concept in the Organizational Semiotics theory, being understood as collective constructions of agents at the social level, providing guidance for their actions. Norms are directly related to human behavior, which influences and is influenced by human values that, in turn, have cultural nature. Therefore, the concept of Norms seems to be promising for supporting the understanding and involvement of values and culture in design from a formal perspective. This internship-proposal aims to investigate the potential of Norms in the representation and formalization of aspects related to values and culture in the design of technology. Besides theoretical and methodological investigations, understanding how to deal with these aspects involve also the proposition of artifacts and methods to support design activities as well as their experimentation in practical design contexts. The host institution (Informatics Research Centre, University of Reading, UK) and researcher (Professor Kecheng Liu) represent a solid and accurate basis to develop the proposed work. (AU)