Titulo Estágio
TranSigno - Designing a Digital Interactive Tool for Value and Ethical Exploration and Implementation in Healthcare Technologies
Local do Estágio
Rua Alfredo Allen 455/461, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
Enquadramento
Background and motivation:
This dissertation proposes the development of a digital interactive version of a card-based methodology designed to identify and reflect on values in healthcare technology.
Values play a central role in shaping healthcare practices and the design of emerging technologies. As AI systems and digital tools become increasingly integrated into healthcare, it becomes essential to critically reflect on the ethical values embedded in such systems, as misaligned values between stakeholders can lead to a lack of representation, inclusiveness, or trust, and in the case of AI, values behind AI decisions must be clearly communicated to the users.
The Signo project (https://signo.projects.fraunhofer.pt/en/) employed a physical card-based methodology to identify and discuss ethical tensions and priorities in healthcare settings, especially in contexts like glaucoma diagnosis. These physical tools — including value cards, scenario cards, and a discussion board — successfully facilitated interdisciplinary conversations among healthcare professionals, designers, and researchers.
In order to enhance reach, scalability, and interactivity, these value cards should be transposed into a digital interactive tool. A digital format allows for real-time collaboration, remote usage, dynamic content adaptation, and interactive visualisations. This dissertation proposes to explore how an interactive ethical design tool can be developed to support practical reflection on values in healthcare technology — especially focusing on strategies to embody those values in real-world design decisions.
Grounded in principles of Value-Sensitive Design (VSD) and Participatory Design, the project will involve iterative prototyping and usability and user experience testing with different stakeholders, such as designers and design researchers, clinicians, patients and others. The main outcome will be a flexible and accessible digital tool that supports deeper reflection on values in healthcare design, promoting more inclusive and ethically grounded innovation.
Objetivo
Objectives:
The dissertation will explore how to transpose a card-based ethics reflection methodology into an interactive digital format. The student will:
- Investigate how values are currently addressed, embedded, negotiated, and/or omitted in interactive systems design, particularly in healthcare.
- Explore ethical and technical requirements for supporting meaningful value reflection digitally.
- Analyze how digital tools can foster ethical reflection on emerging healthcare technologies that resort to AI, including a reflection on AI practices and tensions (e.g., bias, explicability, automation vs. human judgment).
- Design and develop a high-fidelity interactive prototype (minimum viable product) that incorporates the value and scenario cards from the original methodology.
- Develop and test practical strategies that help design teams reflect on, prioritize, and act upon ethical values during the design process.
- Validate the tool through participatory workshops or Wizard-of-Oz simulations with target stakeholders (e.g., HCI designers, healthcare practitioners, ethics researchers).
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 1
Work Plan:
1st Semester
1. Review the state of the art in:
- Value-Sensitive Design (VSD)
- Tools and methods for ethical reflection in design (analog and digital)
- Strategies for managing ethical values in practice
2. Define the requirements for the proposed digital artifact, based on prior card-based workshops and interviews and on prior literature.
3. Identify key usability and ethical design requirements through interviews or analysis of the original workshops.
4. Create preliminary design sketches and interactive wireframes for the digital tool.
5. Write the intermediate document of the dissertation.
Plano de Trabalhos - Semestre 2
Work Plan
2nd Semester:
1. Design a high-fidelity interactive prototype of the tool (e.g., in Figma), and functional MVP (HTML/CSS/JS).
2. Test the prototype with potential users to evaluate the interaction flow and the efficacy of value reflection (e.g., HCI designers, healthcare professionals, AI researchers) using Wizard-of-Oz or scripted sessions.
3. Refine the prototype based on findings of the evaluation.
4. Write the remaining chapters of the dissertation and review the intermediate document.
A. Optionally, submit a scientific article on the design and evaluation of the tool.
Condições
Conditions:
The student should have an interest in ethics in design, AI, and interactive systems. Prior experience with digital prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, HTML/CSS/JS, or design systems) is welcome. Familiarity with value-sensitive design or AI ethics is a bonus.
Observações
MSc Thesis to be supervised by Prof. Paula Alexandra Silva (DEI).
Observations:
This dissertation contributes to emerging research in AI ethics in HCI and offers an opportunity to shape future tools for more humane and reflective technological innovation. The proposed tool aims to bridge ethical theory and design practice in real-world digital health contexts.
Orientador
Ricardo Manuel Coelho de Melo
ricardo.melo@aicos.fraunhofer.pt 📩