Applying living labs in the design of emerging digital platforms – A higher education case study in Douth Africa
Abstract
In this study, the Living Labs approach was evaluated as an approach towards
co-creating the design and implementation process of specific digital
artefacts. The design process of the UDUBSit emerging digital platform at a
South African higher education institution (HEI) was simultaneously
technological and social in nature, and it deeply reflected the underlying
mechanisms and tensions inherent to the emergence of planetary-scale
computation. The single case study analysis, conducted from a Critical
Realist perspective, was the product of a four-year longitudinal research
process focused on the development of a location-based, goal-focused mobile
application as an intended emerging social networking platform and emerging
digital platform. The emerging social networking platform has been developed
using the Living Labs methodology, with a particular in-case focus on digital
inclusion and online community building using mobile technology within the
context of a higher education institution in South Africa.