Human Values in Mobile App Development: An Empirical Study on Bangladeshi Agriculture Mobile Apps

Abstract: Given the ubiquity of mobile applications (apps) in daily lives, understanding and reflecting end-users' human values (e.g., transparency, privacy, social recognition etc.) in apps has become increasingly important. Violations of end users' values by software applications have been reported in the media and have resulted in a wide range of difficulties for end users. Value violations may bring more and lasting problems for marginalized and vulnerable groups of end-users. This research aims to understand the extent to which the values of Bangladeshi female farmers, marginalized and vulnerable end-users, who are less studied by the software engineering community, are reflected in agriculture apps in Bangladesh. Further to this, we aim to identify possible strategies to embed their values in those apps. To this end, we conducted a mixed-methods empirical study consisting of 13 interviews with app practitioners and four focus groups with 20 Bangladeshi female farmers. The accumulated results from the interviews and focus groups identified 22 values of Bangladeshi female farmers, which the participants expect to be reflected in the agriculture apps. Among these 22 values, 15 values (e.g., accuracy, independence) are already reflected and 7 values (e.g., accessibility, pleasure) are ignored/violated in the existing agriculture apps. We also identified 14 strategies (e.g., "applying human-centered approaches to elicit values", "establishing a dedicated team/person for values concerns") to address Bangladeshi female farmers' values in agriculture apps.