Applying Value Sensitive Design to Location-Based Services: Designing for Shared Spaces and Local Conditions

A team of researchers led by Hiruni Kegalle and Flora D. Salim has published a groundbreaking paper for the CHI 2026 conference, proposing a new ethical design framework called Location-Aware Value Sensitive Design (LA-VSD). The work addresses a critical gap: current apps like Uber, DoorDash, and Lime scooters are designed for user convenience but often create negative externalities—cluttered sidewalks, noise, and safety issues—for non-users who share the same physical environment. LA-VSD is a specialized adaptation of Value Sensitive Design tailored to the unique challenges of services that blend digital actions with physical consequences.

The framework provides designers with three practical heuristics. First, it guides them to map all stakeholders, including often-overlooked non-users like local residents or pedestrians, by analyzing "local space-sharing scenarios." Second, it adapts research methods to capture value tensions within specific geographic and cultural contexts. Third, it supports designing interactions that consider both the digital interface and the physical layer of the service. The team demonstrated LA-VSD's effectiveness through a detailed case study of e-scooter sharing in Melbourne, Australia, showing how it leads to more grounded and community-aware design decisions.