The Experience of Immersive Virtual Reality: A Phenomenology Inspired Inquiry

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology is becoming central for Information Systems (IS) research. However, existing studies in IS fall short in providing insights about how the IVR experience becomes meaningful for end-users. To increase granularity and specificity in this regard, researchers have suggested that the IVR experience can become meaningful due to its fleeting feeling of escapism. In this paper, I explore and characterize how individuals use the IVR experience to create meaning in the context of meaningful escapism, by undertaking a phenomenology inspired inquiry, based on Heideggerian views on meaning, meaningfulness, and world. Interviews and analysis were conducted within an empirical case of IVR fire safety training. As a result, four characteristics of the IVR experience as a meaningful form of escapism were unveiled: a sense of content, a sense of familiarity, a sense of mood, and a sense of care. Throughout this study, I offer a nuanced perspective on how the characteristics contribute to clarify the distinctions and relationship between meaning and meaningfulness, as well as how the IVR experience becomes a meaningful escapism that provides an alternative of individual’s being-in-the-world, into a being-in-the-virtual-world, also known as Virtual Dasein. Further, this study contributes to the IS field by advancing the current discourse on IVR research and escapism, from a phenomenological perspective

Proposing Design Principles for Sustainable Fire Safety Training in Immersive Virtual Reality

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technologies are frequently adopted by organizations for safety training. Safety training in IVR engages and motivates employees to develop skills in how to manage hazardous situations. By employing IVR for safety training, organizations and employees can develop safety knowledge and increase their sustainability awareness. In this paper we develop design principles for sustainable fire safety training in IVR. The principles were developed through an Action Design Research (ADR) case. The paper demonstrates how ADR can be used to design individual training environments and how the method supports the development of more generic design principles for such environments. The design principles are subsequently proposed as: Design for Multimodal Risk Perception, Design for Empathetic Safety Cognition, Design for Formative Hazard Inspection, and Design for Comfort in Uncomfortable Decision Making

Designing visualizations for workplace stress management: Results of a pilot study at a Swiss municipality

Job absenteeism and health problems are frequently caused by elevated exposure to work-related stress. The public sector is particularly affected by this development. Nevertheless, public sector organizations seem to have issues to reliably detect stress or to discuss about this topic in an objective and factual manner. Data visualizations have been found to be a powerful boundary object for sense-making and for unraveling issues that lie under the surface. Based on a pilot study at a medium-sized municipality in Switzerland, we thus developed, tested, and discussed various alternative visual representations for creating awareness about occupational stress. The results of this study showcase the hidden potential and perils of analyzing physiolytics data on aggregate level

Wickedness in Designing IT for Integration Work. A phenomenological account

In design for complex, uncertain, and ill-natured situations, it is not possible to apply known methods and solutions without having a deeper situational understanding. Such design situations are infected with wicked problems that are contradictory and complex. This paper answers the question of how the wickedness of designing Information Technologies (IT) for integration work can be understood, and what implications the design situation has for the design process. The paper employs a phenomenological account to perform interviews together with stakeholders and users known as integration workers. Based on a phenomenological analysis, four wicked problems are identified to represent the wicked design situation: Struggle of hopes and fears, Contradiction of contingency, Contradiction of social presence, and Uncertainty of reliance. The wicked problems are subsequently addressed as interrelated and have implications for the design process, which is enframed through four proposed design implications: IT for subtle decision makings, IT for cross-boundary interaction, IT for disclosing proximity and distance, and IT for increased empowerment. The implications incorporate a holistic design ontology, which also shows the viability of phenomenology for studying, describing, and understanding how to tackle situational wickedness in design-oriented Information Systems (IS) research

Semantic web and search engines

Den här semantiska webben. Syftet är att undersöka hur den semantiska webben påverkar sökmotorer på webben. Detta sker genom en undersökning av tio olika sökmotorer där nio är semantiskt sådana och den tionde är den mest använda sökmotorn idag. Studien är genomförd som både en deskriptiv och kvantitativ studie. En litteraturundersökning har också genomförts om den semantiska webben och sökmotorer. Slutsatserna av den här studien är att den semantiska webben är mångfacetterad med dess definitioner, och att resultatet kring hur konkreta sökmotorer tillämpar semantiska webbprinciper kan variera beroende vilken sökmotor man interagerar med.Nyckelord: Semantic web, Semantiska webben, Semantik, Informatik, Web 2.0, Internet, Search engines, Sökmotorerthat relates to the semantic web. Therapporten behandlar definitioner av begrepp som är kopplade till denDen här semantiska webben. Syftet är att undersöka hur den semantiska webben påverkar sökmotorer på webben. Detta sker genom en undersökning av tio olika sökmotorer där nio är semantiskt sådana och den tionde är den mest använda sökmotorn idag. Studien är genomförd som både en deskriptiv och kvantitativ studie. En litteraturundersökning har också genomförts om den semantiska webben och sökmotorer. Slutsatserna av den här studien är att den semantiska webben är mångfacetterad med dess definitioner, och att resultatet kring hur konkreta sökmotorer tillämpar semantiska webbprinciper kan variera beroende vilken sökmotor man interagerar med.This report deals with the definitions and terms main purpose has been to investigate how the semantic web affects search engines on the web. This has been done through an investigation consisting of ten different search engines. Nine of these search engines are considering being semantic search engines, and the last one being the most used one on the web today. The study is conducted as a descriptive and quantitative study. A literature review has also been implemented by the relevant sources about the semantic web and search engines. The conclusions drawn where that the semantic web is multifaceted with its definitions and that the result of how concrete search engines implements semantic web principles can vary depending on which search engine one interacts with

Designing for Adaptable Learning

The research in this thesis emphasizes the endeavor of designing for adaptable learning. Designing for adaptable learning is understood as an overall response to designing for integration work. Designing for integration work is thus classified as a special case of designing for adaptable learning. Integration work in this research is understood as a professional practice that aims to improve and support the integration process of newly arrived immigrants (referred to as newcomers) in society. As professional practitioners of integration work, integration workers face daily challenges that are wicked by nature. In order to understand and problematize these challenges, the empirical work of this research was organized and performed within a case of digitalizing the civic orientation program in Sweden. The civic orientation program is a special case of integration work in Sweden, where integration workers organize and provide civic orientation to newcomers in Sweden. Different groups of newcomers are subsequently participating in a required 60 hours of civic orientation and are provided sessions through their native language. The integration workers are responsible for organizing and performing civic orientation through a dynamic process of dialogues, exercises, and more. Integration work as a practice, however, does not incorporate a standardized knowledge base, which provides integration workers a unified way of organizing and performing civic orientation. Instead, different counties and municipalities in Sweden organize and perform civic orientation in various ways. Furthermore, due to the extreme heterogeneity among newcomers as participants in civic orientation, the integration workers are forced to adapt. In turn, the integration workers themselves are heterogeneous due to their different roles, areas of responsibilities, and more essentially, worldviews. In order to understand and problematize the aspects of designing for integration work, an explorative approach was adopted through three consecutive cycles of Action Design Research. The cycles were performed from 2013 until completion of this thesis. The thesis was subsequently governed through three research questions: (1) How to design for integration work? (2)What makes designing for integration work significant? (3) Why do design for integration work? There search questions were addressed and answered through a body of produced knowledge that captures and provides the essential contributions of the thesis. The contributions of the thesis highlight different aspects of designing for integration work, as a special case of designing for adaptable learning. Thus, the contributions are presented and discussed with an explicit bearing toward designing for adaptable learning,as the general class of problems and solutions of this research. The contributions are consequently provided through: (1) an ensemble artifact that is termed a digital platform for civic orientation; (2) an Information Systems Design Theory for adaptable e-learning; (3) a design research methodology that incorporates work-integrated learning; (4) the meta-design of an open learning platform that supports the social integration of newcomers in society; and (5) a philosophical concept that problematizes and conceptualizes the essence of presence in e-learning. Ultimately, the research contributes to the research domains of information systems and work-integrated learning, by providing findings that problematize core aspects of designing for adaptable learning. Furthermore, the thesis extensively discusses the findings of this research by emphasizing a philosophical perspective toward core aspects of the research contributions. Finally, the thesis concludes with a set of limitations of the current research and a brief discussion about potential endeavours of future research

The Notion of Users in Design Science Research

Design Science Research (DSR) has since the last decade become a paradigm within the field of Information Systems (IS). It provides researchers and practitioners within IS with a rich set of tools in terms of methods, theoretical foundations, research validity and other characteristics. This paper investigates what the notion of users is in DSR. It presents results from a small literature review based on 31 DSR-papers. The results indicate a low presence of how DSR-papers conceptualize the concept of users. The paper suggests that DSR hasn’t reached it’s full potentialities in terms of positioning an explicit notion of users, and that it can be a relevant task for further research for IS-researchers in general, and for DSR-researchers in particular

REVISITING THE PROBLEM OF THE PROBLEM – AN ONTOLOGY AND FRAMEWORK FOR PROBLEM ASSESSMENT IN IS RESEARCH

A comprehensive understanding of how to achieve relevance and practical impact with our work remains elusive within the information systems (IS) community. While we know that finding or constructing important research problems sets the bar for the potential impact that research can have, we know little about how to support research problem assessment and selection in practice. This paper address this gap by presenting the problem assessment framework (PAF) and outlining its application for the assessment, selection, and justification of important research problems. The PAF builds on the problem assessment ontology, which explicates the domain of problem assessment based on a synthesis of extant research. We have instantiated the PAF in the problem assessment canvas to make it more accessible. Altogether, we contribute three novel artifacts that support researchers looking to work on the most important research problems as the basis for more relevant and impactful IS research