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Co-Designing a Digital Platform with Boundary Objects: Bringing Together Heterogeneous Users in Healthcare
University West, School of Business, Economics and IT, Divison of Informatics. (LINA)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4563-0001
University West, School of Business, Economics and IT, Division of Media and Design. (LINA)
University of Gothenburg, Department of Applied IT, IT Faculty, Gothenburg, Sweden.
University of Gothenburg, Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg, Sweden.
2019 (English)In: Health and Technology, ISSN 2190-7188, E-ISSN 2190-7196, Vol. 9, no 4, p. 425-438Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Healthcare is increasingly permeated with digital platforms supporting cooperative care involving different professional groups and also patients. New mobile technologies allow for patients to continuously monitor and document their symptoms to support better healthcare, as well as self-care. The successful design of such multi-user platforms calls for new design approaches involving heterogeneous conditions and goals. This paper analyzes theuse of boundary objects in design as a mediator for different users' needs and conditions. Our research is conducted at a clinic supporting cancer survivors in their struggles with treatment induced illnesses, a treatment heavily dependent on new medical research as well as on patient involvement. The data is collected ethnographically over two years following a design project that developed a digital platform to support the care provided by the clinic. We describe how useful boundary objects transform over time, from rich narratives, to conceptual formulations and finally into concrete prototypes of the platform. We argue that understanding such a transformation can inform the design of healthcare platforms and guide future design processes, where co-designing with boundary objects can be especially useful as a design approach when doing design complex settings, such as healthcare settings.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. Vol. 9, no 4, p. 425-438
Keywords [en]
Co-Design, Health informatics, Cancer rehabilitation, Information Systems, Designing boundary object, Emergent Boundary Objects, Digital Platform, Healthcare Platforms
National Category
Information Systems, Social aspects
Research subject
Work Integrated Learning; SOCIAL SCIENCE, Informatics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-12819DOI: 10.1007/s12553-019-00332-5ISI: 000485084700004Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85062980617OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-12819DiVA, id: diva2:1238284
Note

Ingår i avhandling

Available from: 2018-08-13 Created: 2018-08-13 Last updated: 2020-02-03Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Platformization: Co-Designing Digital Platforms in Practice
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Platformization: Co-Designing Digital Platforms in Practice
2018 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Digital platforms are slowly becoming an important part of both research and everyday work. However, much of the research focus has been on platforms that are already established. Little focus has been on platformization (i.e., design, development and use of platforms in the nascent phases) and the socio-technical aspects of designing platforms for specific practices or purposes, i.e., practice based platforms. While it is truly important to understand technological aspects and market logics of platform efforts, it is also to understand how platforms become platforms, when designing them alongside end-users.

This thesis contributes to the platform discussion with research that focuses both on the technological sides of building platforms while also unpacking the social aspects of the collaborative design situation (i.e., co-design) and development where end users meet and later use the platforms.This thesis explores the research questions: How can practice-based platforms be designed and developed? What impact does end-user engagement in platformization have on the practices involved? How can platformization efforts be approached and researched? Through a study of the design of platforms in care settings, one 2.5–year study within home care and one 2.5–year study within cancer rehabilitation where the end-users' practices involved in the co-design processes are caregivers and care recipients in both studies. This thesis thereby unpacks the platformization process through a roughly five–year longitudinal AR project, based on these two studies. With the help of the boundary literature, the design, development and use of platforms in the nascent phases of platformization is analysed in these two studies. Through a co-design effort in both studies, the practices that are going to use the platforms contribute to a) the design of which boundary resources (i.e., modules in terms of code blocks) will be developed within the platform; b) the design of the boundary object (i.e., working tools in terms of apps) that they are using together inconsensus; and c) the design of a boundary practice in which they will later use the digital artifacts together. The end-users' practices had impact on the design of all layers of the platform through the co-design approach, including an influence on the boundary resources that were developed within the platform. The platforms also had impact on the practices, which designed new ways of interacting.

The results thereby both show the impact of the end-users' practices (caregivers and care recipients, which are heterogeneous) on the platform design,as well as the impact of the platform on the design of their boundary practice. In this thesis, the design and development of the two platforms is thereby researched and the design of the platforms is validated by studying the use of the platforms as well. The main contribution of this thesis is a conceptualization of the platformization process where the key characteristics of designing such platforms with heavy user engagement are illustrated in a platformization model and in seven platformization principles.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Trollhättan: University West, 2018. p. 123
Series
PhD Thesis: University West ; 25
Keywords
Platforms; Platformization; Co-design; Practice-based platforms; Healthcare; Care sector; Home care; Cancer rehabilitation; Nascent phases of platformization; Action research; Boundary resources; Boundary objects; Boundary practice; Platformization principles, Plattformar; Plattformisering; Co-design; Praktikplattformar; hälso- och sjukvård; Hemtjänst; Cancer rehabilitering; Tidiga faser av plattformisering; Aktionsforskning; Gränsresurser; Gränsobjekt; Gränspraktik; Plattformiseringsprinciper
National Category
Information Systems, Social aspects
Research subject
Work Integrated Learning; SOCIAL SCIENCE, Informatics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-12821 (URN)978-91-88847-02-7 (ISBN)978-91-88847-01-0 (ISBN)
Public defence
2018-08-31, Albertsalen, Trollhättan, 13:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2018-08-13 Created: 2018-08-13 Last updated: 2023-06-02Bibliographically approved

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Islind, Anna SigridurLindroth, Tomas

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