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2 - Introducing Accountable Design

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2026

Lachlan David Urquhart
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Summary

Chapter 2 introduces the concept of Accountable Design and provides a detailed exploration of the terms accountable and design. It draws on extensive scholarship from human–computer interaction (HCI), design research, technology law, and science and technology studies. It advocates for a human-centred framing of accountability and explores the various challenges of achieving more accountable Clever Computing systems. It advances three broad framings of design within Accountable Design, namely, design as a critical lens to help speculate and reflect on futures we want to build; design as an instrumental lens to engineering solutions to problems; and design as creative practice and methods. Normative concerns around design as a regulatory tool are presented, such as the legitimacy of designers’ role alongside the speed and the nature of the enforcement of rules through design. Analysis focuses on how to reconcile legal and design perspectives by exploring how to account for legal values in human-centred technology design processes.

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