Outreach programmes using the Triple Helix model to encourage interest in Science and Technology among underrepresented youth

Science and Technology entrepreneurship is one of the requirements of the new millennium, an era called digital society and globalization. Entrepreneurship is considered an agent of growth, wealth creation and development of society. Although New Zealand has experienced a rapid growth of education and research in Science and Technology areas, the country continues to face challenges in engaging communities such as Māori and Pasifika school students. There is a lack of understanding about career pathway choices and opportunities by parents and high school students, especially in these communities (Ministry of Business, 2014). A significant part of enhancing this understanding is building a relationship between the communities, science and technology industry partners and school students. This paper presents an initiative taken by the university, government and community partners to create a better understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and entrepreneurship. The programme brought together business, government, researchers, school students, and the wider community within the Auckland region. It demonstrated the application of the triple helix model (Figure 2) to connect the three major players through STEM subjects and entrepreneurship. The programme encourages students to think about themselves as job makers rather than job takers in the future. A range of measures are used to evaluate its success, and initial results are presented. The format of this study can serve as a guideline for future initiatives aimed to improve students’ awareness of STEM and entrepreneurship careers

Improving the Website Design Process for SMEs: A Design Science Perspective

The success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in e-business is significantly affected by the quality of their websites. Currently, website designers focus mainly on improving the usability of websites. They pay less attention to the psychological, cognitive and other needs of the employees and customers who use these websites. The lack of attention to these needs leads to websites that are not well or appropriately utilised, negatively impacting the e-business ambitions of SMEs. This study adopts a design science approach (Hevner et al. 2004; March and Smith, 1995) to develop a new methodology for designing websites that takes these concerns into account. The new methodology is based on Brown’s principles (Brown, 1999), as they incorporate the various concerns of users. The new methodology was used to design a New Zealand SME\u27s website and multiple methods were used to evaluate it. The data was complemented by the results of the requirements analysis exercise and the designer\u27s wire frame models

A User-Centred Framework for Website Evaluation

The growth of the Internet has encouraged the creation of visually rich and perceptual interfaces on personal computers and mobile devices. Organisations develop websites for various purposes, and over time, the features and functions of websites have evolved significantly. Since website quality affects organisational performance, it is important to be able to assess the efficacy of websites. However, there are two key issues with the literature on website evaluation: a) a focus on specific aspects of website performance, not their overall impact, and b) limited attention on their ability to meet the broader needs of users, beyond usability and functionality, such as their social and emotional concerns. This paper uses design science to develop a theoretically-grounded evaluation framework for this purpose. Drawing on Shneiderman (1998) and Brown (1999), the framework proposes that website evaluation should triangulate information from two sources (users and experts) and using different methods (task analysis with users, in-depth interview with users and expert reviews). The framework is applied in a website development project, and the results are discussed

Improving the Website Design Process for SMEs: a design science perspective

E-business is particularly advantageous for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) because it helps them increase the scale of their operations quickly and easily. Like all organisations, the success of SMEs in e-business is significantly affected by the quality of their websites. However, compared to larger firms, SME websites often do worse in retaining customer attention, providing them with the necessary information and enabling transactions. Although this is partly due to the financial constraints of SMEs, a contributing factor is the emphasis that website designers place on a website’s usability. By doing so, they are paying less attention to the psychological, cognitive and other needs of the customers who use these websites. The lack of attention to these needs leads to websites that are not well or appropriately utilised, negatively impacting the e-business ambitions of SMEs. This study adopts a design science approach (Hevner et al. 2004; March and Smith, 1995) to develop a new methodology for designing websites that takes these concerns into account. The new methodology is based on multidisciplinary principles from the field of design (Brown, 1999; Shneiderman, 1998), as they provide a framework for structuring the various concerns of users. The new methodology was tested in the design of an SME's website. Once the website was completed, the artefact was evaluated with multiple methods: in-depth interviews with users, user task analysis, and expert reviews. The in-depth interviews were used to evaluate the product (website) and the process (artefact), the user task analysis was used to evaluate the product (website) and the expert reviews were used to evaluate the process (artefact). The users scored the website highly in terms of usability and in meeting their needs, and the experts found the new process to be beneficial. This study contributes by developing a website design methodology that is anchored in its users’ needs, so that the websites it produces are successful in achieving their goals. The study concludes by offering possible avenues for extending the research topic in the future

Outreach programmes using the Triple Helix model to encourage interest in Science and Engineering among underrepresented youth

  Science and Technology entrepreneurship is one of the requirements of the new millennium, an era called digital society and globalization; entrepreneurship is considered as an agent of growth, wealth creation and development of society. Although New Zealand has experienced a rapid growth of education and research in science and technology areas, the country continues to face challenges in engaging communities such as Maori and Pasifika school students. There is a lack of understanding about career pathway choices and opportunities by parents and high school students, especially in these communities (Ministry of Business, 2014). A significant part of enhancing this understanding is building a relationship between the communities, science and technology industry partners and school students. This paper presents an initiative taken by the university, government and community partners to create a better understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and entrepreneurship. The programme brought together business, government, researchers, school students, and the wider community within the Auckland region. It demonstrated the application of the triple helix model (Figure 2) to connect the three major players through STEM subjects and entrepreneurship. The programme encourages students to think about themselves as job makers rather than job takers in the future. A range of measures are used to evaluate its success, and initial results are presented. The format of this study can serve as a guideline for future initiatives that are aimed to improve students’ awareness of STEM and entrepreneurship careers

Using Multidisciplinary Design Principles to Improve the Website Design Process

An organization\u27s success in e-business is significantly affected by the quality of its website. However, many websites are unable to retain the attention of their customers, arguably because they only cater to some of the needs of their customers. This study adopts a design science approach to develop a new methodology for designing websites that addresses the psychological, sociological, and cognitive needs of individual users. The methodology is based on multidisciplinary principles drawn from the field of design, as they provide a framework for structuring the various concerns of users. This study contributes by developing a website design methodology anchored in users’ needs, so that the websites it produces are successful in achieving their goals. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol8/iss3/3