HCII Seminar Series - Sai Shruthi Chivukula
Speaker
Sai Shruthi Chivukula
Assistant Professor at School of Information, Pratt Institute
When
-
Where
Newell-Simon Hall 3305
Video
Video link
Description
"Behind the Toolkits: Confessions, Compromises, and Contradictions in Ethics-Focused Design"
What does it really mean to design methods for ethical design practice? And what happens when the work of designing for ethics becomes an ethical challenge in itself?
In this talk, I offer an insider's account of the messy, uncertain, and often contradictory work of designing ethics-focused methods for design practitioners and students. Drawing on my experience surveying existing ethics-focused design methods and developing my own, including Anti-Heroes and Value Lanes, I will share the questions, doubts, fears, and tensions that have shaped my own perception of what this artifact called an “ethics-focused method” could mean, look like, or even achieve.
Rather than presenting perfected solutions, I will open up the process behind these methods, sharing the experiments, compromises, and lessons that rarely make it into the final toolkit. I will introduce my AAA philosophy—Awareness, Action, and Agency/Advocacy—as a way of making sense of my experiences as a method designer and understanding how different methods invite ethical reflection, support action, and empower advocacy. The talk will offer practical resources for method designers, educators, practitioners, and students who are also trying to make ethics matter in design.
Speaker's Bio
Sai Shruthi Chivukula is an Assistant Professor in Information Experience Design Program, School of Information at Pratt Institute, New York. She directs Translate, a research group conducting translational work and investigating ethics in technology and design practice. Her research lies at the intersection of HCI and UX, design practice, ethics and values in design, design education, and critical qualitative research. She investigates how designers and HCI practitioners navigate ethical decision-making in everyday practice, including how they recognize ethical concerns, negotiate competing values and responsibilities, and translate ethical awareness into action. Her work develops practical, open-access methods and pedagogical resources that support ethical reflection and decision-making in design education and professional practice. A new strand of her research is exploring Regulation-Informed Design, examining how emerging technology regulations and policy can inform design methods, processes, and professional decision-making. In 2025, she co-authored her first book Universal Methods of Ethical Design, a practical guide to integrating ethical reflection and decision-making into everyday design practice. At Pratt, she teaches courses related to UX design, Conversational UX, Service Design, and Deceptive Design. She loves weaving together her research and teaching, while making art, experimenting with new recipes, and finding creative expression in everyday life.
Speaker's Website
https://shruthichivukula.com/
Host
Julie Saunders