Summer hot, Winter not! – Seasonal influences on context-based music recommendations

This paper explores artefact generativity as a novel conceptual frame to inform information system (IS) artefact design beyond designing for artefact utility at the time of an artefact’s introduction or implementation. The paper draws on three recently developed generativity conceptualizations and applies the findings to IS artefact design. Artefact generativity captures the notions that 1) sustained artefact utility may require potentially continuous artefact changes over its lifetime, 2) (re-)designers need to enact these changes within a design system, and 3) continuous artefact use may lead to further generative transformations in the artefact’s social and technical environment. IS design science researchers can draw on this paper’s findings to inform future artefact design decisions that address these three notions by drawing on the established and growing foundations of IS and social science theories that underlie the established generativity perspectives

Community participatory design in the information systems development process in Africa: a systemic literature review

Participatory design (PO) pertains to the different ways of incorporating ideas and acts of organisational members in designing, developing and evaluating an Information Systems (IS) artefact. The context of this study is community organisations in African settings participating in the designing and developing of an IS artefact. The study traces and synthesises findings from 95 articles on community PO in Information Systems Development in Africa. It argues that community PO consists of vast diverse constructs and implementations. This produced and reproduced concept is formulated in five major themes of: conceptualisations; ethics; standards; checks and balances and approaches; and perspectives and methodologies of PD. The themes constitute the possible ways of classifying PO research and practice in African settings. The results demonstrate that there is a wide belief that participation is one of the vital ingredients necessary for successful designing of IS artefacts for human development. However, the different elements involved in PO involve much discussion on what is known and needs to be known about PO and how to achieve the desired results by PD. The study uses Critical Research philosophy to pay special attention to the behavioural and attitudinal arguments of the different PO practices on community organisations. The researcher found Design Science (OS) principles that centre on devising an artefact as appropriate to frame this work. In sum, through the use of Critical Research and a OS lens, the researcher found that community participation is important in designing a useful IS artefact, but treacherous if misunderstood and inappropriately implemented

Review of practice-led research in art, design & architecture

This review report sets out the outcomes of a 10 month investigation to describe the landscape of practice-led research in Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) in the UK and beyond. We were asked for a qualitative review but of course it has been important to gather some numbers to check and illustrate our observations. We have consulted widely, both face to face and in the virtual world, with experts and novices in the UK and around the world. We have tried to strike a balance between the natural desire of our colleagues to debate the more contentious aspects of this territory (they were never going to forgo that opportunity) and the equally strong wish of the AHRC that we should provide a clear description of what is happening. We have collected some diverse examples of research and subjected them to various examinations. We have also examined a selection of research projects funded by AHRC and other projects by creative practitioners, funded by a non-research organisation. From all this we have been able to describe the landscape in a straightforward sense: We have measures of the proportions of ADA academics involved in practice-led research. We have clarified differences in the ways that the different ADA disciplines engage with practice-led research and identified some problems that indicate possible future support strategies. We have discussed some problems with general definitions of research and identified issues that should be addressed to ensure that the AHRC definition can be applied to the full range of practice-led research. We have picked out some specific case examples that illustrate the range of contexts, methods and contributions made by practice-led researchers, and more are described in detail in Appendix F. We have also sought to assess how this research relates to the wider international picture in which the UK appears to have a strong position in both volume and development of research. We have also set out some issues that affect this community of researchers: What strengths and weaknesses have we observed and where is there a need to support development? Do the AHRC definition of research and guidance on practice-led research provide an effective framework? We have illustrated the state of development of research in ADA, and some reasons why it is less robust than might be expected from such long established disciplines. We recommend that the career path of researchers in ADA needs some attention and make some suggestions about how that could be achieved. We have also indicated some areas of inquiry that might be supported to advance the theory and methods of practice-led research. In particular we have come to the conclusion that conventional ideas of contribution to knowledge or understanding may not be serving us well. This is significant to fine artists but we believe that it relevant across ADA and a shared effort to develop appropriate new models would be a constructive development. The full set of recommendations can be found in chapter 5

IoT-enabled Advanced Services: exploring the IoT-artefact as a socio-technical construct

The present study draws on the Information Systems (IS) artefact theory (Lee, Thomas, & Baskerville, 2015) to systematically conceptualize the IoT and investigate its contribution to the manufacturer’s advanced services. The study employs qualitative methods to analyse the advanced services offerings of eight multinational manufacturers and identifies the specific IS artefacts, their underlying information-, social- and technology-subsystems and their enabling roles in an advanced services context. The study and its findings contribute to the development of a socio-technical IoT perspective and an enhanced understanding of the role IoT has in an advanced services context

e-Artisans: Contemporary Design for the Global Market

The aim of GoGlobal Ghana was to consider whether the creative industries in a developing country could be nurtured through design collaboration and an e-commerce model to contribute significant economic growth through increasing the level of international trade. The project was initiated with three phases planned for execution: a creative studio with design students from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London and the Kwame Nkruma University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana, an e-commerce process for supply, distribution and marketing; and finally a “hub” location to facilitate project delivery and dissemination to other African regions