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Design for the Value of Human Well-Being

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Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design

Abstract

This chapter studies how and to what extent it is possible to design for well-being. Well-being is rarely considered in the design literature and is rarely linked to technology and design in philosophy and the social sciences. A few approaches to design for well-being have recently materialized, however, including Emotional Design, capability approaches, positive psychology approaches, and Life-Based Design. In this chapter, the notion of well-being will first be clarified and contemporary theories of and approaches to well-being will be reviewed. Next, theoretical and methodological issues in design for well-being will be discussed that must be accounted for in any successful approach. This will be followed by a review of the abovementioned four approaches to design for well-being. The chapter will conclude by considering open issues and future work in the development of design approaches for well-being.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Desmet and Pohlmeyer (2013) develop a similar approach within positive psychology which they call positive design. Positive design aims to design for pleasure (personal affect), personal significance (pursuing personal goals), and virtue (being a morally good person). All three should be strived for in each design. Such designs are then held to enhance overall well-being.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universiteit Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Philip Brey

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  1. Philip Brey
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Correspondence to Philip Brey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Jeroen van den Hoven

  2. Department of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Pieter E. Vermaas

  3. Department of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Ibo van de Poel

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Brey, P. (2015). Design for the Value of Human Well-Being . In: van den Hoven, J., Vermaas, P., van de Poel, I. (eds) Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6970-0_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6970-0_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6969-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6970-0

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

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