Qualitative Research and Information Systems Design – Critical reflections from an eHealth Case study

Abstract

Academic and business environments increasingly accept the utility of diverse qualitative research approaches for informing the design, implementation and evaluation of information systems. However, there are concerns that inherent techno-centrism within the IS discipline distorts criteria for choosing and adapting approaches and, significantly, works to marginalise the opportunities qualitative insights provide to open up human-centered dialogue on new ways of thinking and designing (Gasson 2003). This paper presents a qualitative research approach designed to facilitate critical reflection and sensitise researchers’ to implicit assumptions that technology will be the end-point of their activities and when judgments about criteria for successful designs are technologically and/or economically over-determined. The method endpoint is a conceptual framework constructed for the research domain which is the basis for translating sociological insights into implications for information systems and work practice in a public health service organisation