Designing Information Systems for Sustainability – The Role of Universal Design and Open Innovation

Abstract

Abstract. Although sustainability is a key concern in today's world, more efforts towards achieving sustainability are needed. User inclusion in the information system design process could enhance the outcome of a system's action towards sustainability. It is, however, important to understand the design procedure of a system to achieve such goals. A framework denominating as the inclusive innovation framework presented in this paper incorporated analyses from open innovation, universal design, and sustainability to motivate the initiation of internal and external driving factors towards sustainability goals. The derived framework could promote the information system's enabled sustainable goals by combining the use of universal design principles and the concept of open innovation. A requirement engineering model was also proposed that was interoperable within the three subjects of interest discussed in the paper and was necessary for understanding the application of an inclusive innovation framework. Two use cases were then presented as an illustration for arguing the validation of the proposed inclusive innovation framework. The findings from the use cases indicated that the use of universal design principles along with an open innovation concept could increase information systems' enabled sustainability goals. This could be done by enhancing a system's successfulness along with the increased user satisfaction.Keywords: Sustainability, Open Innovation, Universal Design, Inclusive Innovation Framework. IntroductionDuring the recent decades the impact of human activities on the Earth's eco-systems has become a growing concern. Research connected to sustainability issues in the information system field has increased due to larger awareness of environmental issues, climate change, and the risk of global warming [32], [45]. Information systems are ubiquitous in our society and they play an important role in confronting some of the adverse effects on the environment [46]. It is important to acknowledge that the increased use of the information system has constituted a growing environmental concern in itself, e.g. increased power consumption for running an IT system and the need of scarce resources to build IT artifacts [11]. The information system artifact is a tool that mediates activities and is different from a simple IT artifact. This is because the information system artifact is considered to be an intricate socio-technical system defined as an "integrated and cooperating set of people, processes, software, and information technologies to support individual, organizational, or societal goals" [45]. Also there seems to be a strong public belief in the information system as an enabler of sustainability [46]. All larger systems are influenced by a variety of stakeholders that determines its future [17] and this is also implied for the information system. While no definite definition of the open innovation concept exists and the newness of open innovation itself was argued [42], the concept has usually proclaimed tha...

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