A Design Theory for Visual Inquiry Tools

Abstract

The Business Model Canvas project cleared the path for the development of a new tool type that we refer to as visual inquiry tools. Such tools build on design thinking techniques to allow management practitioners to jointly inquire into specific strategic management problems. As the interest in and the emergence of visual inquiry tools gain momentum, it is important to formalize the design knowledge that future designers can build on to develop such tools. Thus, we propose a design theory for visual inquiry tools based on the design knowledge accumulated within and across three projects: the Business Model Canvas, the Value Proposition Canvas, and the Team Alignment Map. We outline the design principles (among others) that should be followed for developing visual inquiry tools for other strategic management problems. Our study addresses the lack of guidance in the development of visual inquiry tools and the lack of methodological guidance in design science research on how to theorize and formalize knowledge across multiple projects. We provide a methodological process for analyzing multiple-project data by bridging methodological insights from design science research and qualitative methods from the social sciences.

Choose your own training adventure: designing a gamified SETA artefact for improving information security and privacy through interactive storytelling

“…Our gamified SETA intervention is an improvement (Gregor & Hevner, 2013), as it is an innovative solution to the problem of OSD that is more effective than current solutions, as evidenced by the instrumental outcomes mentioned above as well as the experiential outcomes we evaluated viz., memorability and user experience. Thus, our research generated prescriptive knowledge by establishing design principles that were material and action-oriented (Avdiji et al, 2020;Chandra et al, 2015).…”

“…A gamified system should result in meaningful engagement with both instrumental and experiential outcomes (Liu et al, 2017). Our overall proof-ofvalue of the gamified SETA artefact is demonstrated by the following performance criteria (Avdiji et al, 2020): efficacy (the intervention produces the intended outcomes), effectiveness (it can be successfully used to achieve higher-level or longerterm goals), efficiency (its use does not require an inappropriate amount of time or other resources), and elegance (the intervention is easy to use and understand) (Checkland & Poulter, 2010). In order to provide evidence of the rigour of our research, we needed to establish the instrumental outcomes, i.e., the efficacy of the gamified SETA artefact as well as its longer-term effectiveness in changing attitudes and intentions and reducing OSD behaviour (Venable et al, 2016).…”

“…Our DSR goals are to generate prescriptive knowledge (Gregor & Hevner, 2013), by establishing design principles for a gamified SETA artefact that can reduce OSD (Avdiji et al, 2020). In order to generate these design principles, we developed testable propositions (Gregor & Jones, 2007) -hypotheses -about what the gamified SETA artefact should enable users to do and how it should be built in order to do so.…”

Transformer(s) of the Logistics Industry - Enabling Logistics Companies to Excel with Digital Platforms

“…Digital platform projects are designed and organized in large interdisciplinary teams [34][35][36]. As this paper aims at supporting these interdisciplinary projects, its artifact/result must facilitate and support a concise communication and strategic alignment of all involved stakeholders.…”

“…As this paper aims at supporting these interdisciplinary projects, its artifact/result must facilitate and support a concise communication and strategic alignment of all involved stakeholders. VITs are known to reduce an artifact's design complexity by decomposing it into several inter-dependent building blocks [35] positioning it as a model regarding March and Smith's [37] classification of artifact types in design science research. To achieve the reduction of a digital platform's complexity, we chose VITs over more formal design methods.…”