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.