Strategies to Embed Human Values in Mobile Apps: What do End-Users and Practitioners Think?

With the ubiquity of mobile apps, reflecting end-users' human values (e.g., transparency) has become crucial. Violations of these values have caused significant issues, particularly for marginalized groups. This research focuses on understanding how the values of Bangladeshi female farmers, a vulnerable group underrepresented in software engineering studies, are reflected in agriculture apps. We also aim to identify strategies to better embed their values in these apps. To achieve this, we conducted a mixed-methods study, including 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) are already reflected and 7 values (e.g., accessibility) are ignored/violated in the existing agriculture apps. We also identified 14 strategies (e.g., “applying human-centered approaches to elicit values”) to address Bangladeshi female farmers' values in agriculture apps.