- A theory is a tool with which you can analyze your data, or other things depending on the purpose of your research. There are mainly five different types of theory: analytical, explanatory, predictive, explanatory and predictive in conjunction and design and action. The distinction/categorization is pretty self explanatory between each type. From this it is easy to see that things commonly mistaken as theory, such as data, references, variables, diagrams and hypotheses, are in fact not theory.
- The major theory this paper focus on is user centered design, UCD. Some may say that UCD is a methodology, but according Table 2 in Greger (2006), you can see it as a type five theory; that is, design and action. The idea of using UCD in this paper is to better design the Enterprise resource systems (ERP) systems better right away, so that the end user experience is smoother. The paper explores how you can combine these two processes. There is lengthy sections explaining both ERP and UCD, where UCD is the more of a media technology theory than ERP. Anyhow, if I got everything right, the paper only argues why using UCD in conjunction with ERP is good. There are references to work, but they serve more as exemplifying the theory, which I believe Sutton and Staw (1995) said were good, or at least good when trying out new theories and ways to apply them. Regardless, UCD in not a hard theory to grasp. The idea is that you get a better product by involving the persons that is going to use a system or an artifact,i.e the users. You do this throughout the design process, and in the end you’ll have a product that is is satisfactory and useful, according to the ISO-standards.
- In this specific case, I think it is really good that UCD is the main theory so to speak. You’ll get a better product, which users will find more intuitive and useful, since they helped in the design of it. However, a risk that may arisen is that the users may make choices that is good for them, but will end up hurting the business. It’s when these kind of difficulties appears you as a designer have to make a choice; either go along with the theory you are designing with or decide yourself what is the best solution in the current case. Relying blindly on any theory may end up obfuscate more than it clarifies.
References:
Gregor, S. (2006), The Nature of Theory in Information Systems
Sutton, R.I.; Staw, B.M. (1995), What Theory is Not
Vilpola, I.H. (2007), A method for improving ERP implementation success by the principles and process of user-centred design
Like you mention in question 3 it may be difficult to know how much to rely on theory and how much on results or your own ideas. I think you cannot be too close minded and only follow the theory. You have to take theory, research results, etc. into account when drawing conclusions and deciding what is the best solution. The best thing would be to find connections between the theory and your results and to find solutions based on that.
SvaraRaderaI agree with Jonas point of view, its important to keep an open mind if you are to find the best solution and not focus to much on the theory in this case.
SvaraRadera"A theory is a tool with which you can analyze your data, or other things depending on the purpose of your research." That's a nice way to put it! Indeed, one can think of theory as a framework used in order to understand the world. Strange than no one thought about using the term "framework" in the course wiki!
SvaraRadera