Human Implications of Technology

The relationship between technology and society is characterized by feedback. Technological determinists and social determinists perspectives are offer informative but narrow insights into either side of the process. Innovative individuals can generate new technologies that alter the lives, practices, and even ways of thinking in a society. Societies alter technologies as they adopt them, often yielding results far from the hopes or fears of the original designers. Design for values, also called value sensitive design, are methods that explicitly address the human element. sAs the example of usability in security illustrates, a designer who is cognizant of human implications of a design can produce a more effective technological solution.