Responsible Tech Innovation Through Design: A Participative, Reflective, and Systemic Approach

Technological progress has offered humanity many opportunities, though innovators need to gain knowledge in anticipating the impacts of their creations and dedicate themselves to more caring strategies, as many times technological advancements cause harm to the environment and people. In addition, organizations tend to respond to business externalities reactively, which has proven unsustainable. Understanding and identifying biases and expanding learning during the technological innovation process are essential to prevent unintended consequences. The future of responsible technology relies on achieving a more holistic view and enabling more systemic, sustainable, and responsible strategies. This study presents the formation of a substantive theory that explores the phenomena and development needs for designers successfully support responsibility in the technological innovation process. It reviews and compares designerly strategy models, methods, and frameworks. More concretely, it presents the process for defining a theoretical and methodological approach for a responsible, participatory, reflective, and systemic design.