To tackle emerging challenges related with traditional safety training for practitioners that work onboard trains in society; for this research, we developed an immersive virtual safety training environment with Immersive Virtual Reality technology. We employed the Action Design Research (ADR) approach to design an Alpha prototype in close cooperation with end-users and software developers. The end-users were train operators and safety trainers at a train operating company in Sweden known as SJ. Two research cycles were executed to develop and evaluate the prototype. Consequently, by following the ADR method, we developed and proposed four design principles for immersive virtual safety training environments: (1) Design for Virtual Safety Realism, (2) Design for Virtual Boundary Crossing, (3) Design for Virtual Multimodal Feedback, and (4) Design for Virtual Touchpoints and Collaborative Reflection. 

Action Design Research (ADR) explicitly promotes reflection and learning as an important stage for supporting other ADR stages (e.g., building, intervention, and evaluation). Yet, very few ADR studies demonstrate a clear trajectory for how to reflect and learn, what varieties of reflection and learning do exist, and if there are any methods for supporting the reflection process. In response to the possibility of further evolving the reflection and learning stage, for this paper, we explore how ADR can be used as a reflective practice for sense-giving and sense-making of meaning. We do so by employing a phenomenological approach that serves an epistemology for a reflective practice together with concepts for conceptualizing variances of meaning, sense-giving, and sense-making. The results of our work propose three phenomenological themes for engaging with ADR as a reflective practice: (1) Anticipatory Reflection and Learning, (2) Retrospective Reflection and Learning, and (3) Contemporaneous Reflection and Learning. Consequently, the themes’ utility is illustrated via two different ADR projects, and the implications of the themes for practice and theory are discussed as fruitful for future ADR, as well as Design Science Research (DSR), in Information Systems (IS).

This study examines how Dark Web (DW) forums enable pathways to “lawless spaces,”particularly in the context of online Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). While DW forums offer anonymityand access to illicit materials, limited research has explored their spatial characteristics and rolein enabling criminal engagement. Drawing on a pilot study in collaboration with the SwedishPolice, this research analyzes forum data and expert interviews to identify four key themesthrough which DW forums enable pathways to lawless spaces: Incentivizing Engagement,Creating Proximity and Distance, Normalizing CSA, and Empowering Users.

By applying aspatial perspective, the study advances Information Systems research on digital deviance andlawless spaces while underscoring the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between academiaand law enforcement. The findings offer insights into how DW forums function as enablerspathways to CSA and highlight potential strategies for prevention and intervention.

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) provides an emerging research discourse for the information systems (IS) field, with respect to ”embodiment.” Embodiment has been a subject for IS studies. Contemporary research on IVR embodiment, however, is scarce, especially from the perspective of the immersive experience. Hence, this paper explores how Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological view on embodiment and ontology of the Flesh can be employed to conceptualize IVR embodiment for the IS field. As a result, this paper contributes with the concept of ”Immersed Flesh,” a phenomenological conceptualization of IVR embodiment that is proposed to advance the IS discourse on IVR research, embodiment, and phenomenology. The Immersed Flesh is defined as the tissue or matrix that gives rise to a potency of merging worlds (e.g., physical, virtual) bearing actuality, in a dynamic and relational process of embodying activities among a plurality of singularities that constitutes the very fabric of reality. As a concept, the Immersed Flesh focuses on the very feeling of immersive embodiment and highlights it through three illustrative examples: (1) embodying the ”living body” of an immersed body-subject, (2) embodying intersubjective perspective-taking of the other’s body-schema, and (3) embodying the objective body and immersed interworld of passing entities. 

In light of the emerging and diverse nature of current forms of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) embodiment, this short paper explores a post-phenomenological lens for understanding IVR embodiment through two post-phenomenological concepts: multistability and multiplicity.

The paper explores the implications of these concepts through three trajectories: the embodiment of form in IVR, the embodiment of identity in IVR, and the embodiment of perspectives in IVR. Additionally, the paper outlines future research questions focusing on the influence of IVR embodiment for IS research. Furthermore, an empirical case of immersive civic orientation for immigrants is discussed to explore how the multistability and multiplicity concepts can inform real-world applications.

Finally, the paper concludes by proposing complementary avenues for future IS research on IVR embodiment based on the two concepts.

Purpose: The reemergence of immersive virtual technology (IVR) provides both opportunities and challenges for workplace learning (WPL). The purpose of this study is to explore and develop knowledge about how gamification influences the WPL experience by addressing two research questions: RQ1. What characterizes a gamified immersive safety training experience with IVR technology? and RQ2. How does gamified immersive safety training with IVR technology impact the WPL experience?

Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a mixed methods approach by combining a systematic literature review with a case study on an empirical project about immersive fire safety training for train operators that are used at the Swedish train operating company SJ. The case study included data from semistructured interviews, Web survey and observation studies. The data was analyzed in two stages combining inductive and deductive data analysis for identifying themes and categories.

Findings: The findings of the study are twofold: (1) themes that conceptualize the gamified immersive safety training experience based on outputs from both the literature review and the first round of data analysis; and (2) a framework with three overarching categories that are mapped with the identified themes, and which were deduced throughout the second round of data analysis.

Originality/value: The originality of the findings stresses the implications of how a body of knowledge that synthesizes gamification concepts with immersive safety training, can inform the design of WPL experiences that are facilitated with IVR technology. As such, the implications of the findings are targeted toward both the advancement of the IVR discourse in the WPL field, but also toward practical considerations for design of immersive learning experiences that enrich WPL practices and culture

The conceptualization of space is integral to many of the diverse forms of information systems — for example, the physical space represented in geographical information systems and the virtual space of simulated worlds. Yet despite its importance and centrality, the conceptualization of space in information systems is not as sophisticated or mature as in other fields. A lack of attention to the diversity of perspectives on space hampers ongoing research and the revisioning of phenomena that could lead to new insights in information systems. The aim of this paper is to develop an encompassing framework that provides a comprehensive view of philosophical perspectives, spatial themes, and concepts of space that are relevant to information systems. As a result of an extensive literature review, an encompassing framework is presented that includes four prominent spatial themes: representing space, differentiating space, disclosing space, and intuitive space. Each theme is related to its key characteristics and features and underlying philosophical perspectives. The paper demonstrates how the new framework can facilitate IS scholars’ expansive analysis in scholarly work and assist editors and reviewers in evaluating papers concerning space in IS and shows how the revisioning of phenomena can lead to transformational shifts in understanding IS phenomena.

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology has been shown to effectively facilitate fire safety training. However, the current discourse on immersive safety training provides scarce knowledge on the quality of immersive safety training from the perspective of safe spaces.

In turn, the general notion of a safe space – being an environment that is characterized by the freedom to move, share, talk, and act freely without risk for physical or mental damage – needs further elaboration in an IVR training context where the experience of safety is highly interrelated with embodiment and immersion. This study employed thus a phenomenological approach to explore and conceptualize characteristics of immersive safe spaces. This was done through phenomenological interviews with employees at Sweden’s largest train operating company, which undertook fire safety training in IVR by using an IVR application known as the “Fire Trainer”.

The interview material was then analyzed through an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) that conceptualized four themes for characterizing immersive safe spaces: Sense of Authentic Hazard Recognition, Sense of Behavioral Responsiveness, Sense of Intersubjective Risk Perception, and Sense of Embodied Atmosphere. Implications of conceptualizing the themes are targeted towards understanding the quality of being/feeling safe during safety training in IVR, and how the design of future immersive fire safety environments might benefit from employing the proposed themes.

Gamification provides a prominent technique that can be used to provide Immersive Learning Environments (ILEs) for domains, where it is dangerous or expensive to learn in real environments. Especially industrial organizations (e.g., manufacturing, mining, construction) are a promising domain for implementing ILEs that combine gamification concepts with a pedagogical design to facilitate safety training under secure circumstances. Although there are design research studies that exemplify the utility of gamification of learning activities, or how to improve organizational safety training through gamification, there is a need to address how sustainable safe spaces can be designed for enhanced safety training in ILEs. Safe spaces are key elements of a successful safety training experience in ILEs as they provide safe and secure training environments, which in the physical world are typically considered too dangerous with high risk of injuring the training participants. This study reports findings from an ongoing DSR project that stresses the design of ILEs for sustainable safety training. Within the project, an artifact for immersive fire safety training in virtual reality has been designed, developed, and evaluated together with employees of a train operator company. The research responds to the need of producing design knowledge that moves beyond the highly contextualized designs principles that are particular for IVR applications. We use gamification concepts as a kernel theory for developing a mid-range theory of designing immersive virtual safety training environments.