Digital Desire Paths: Exploring the Role of Computer Workarounds in Emergent Information Systems Design

Manuel Wiesche, Nina Böhm and Michael Schermann

European Journal of Information Systems, 2024, vol. 33, issue 2, 145-160

Abstract: The information systems literature generally conceptualises information system (IS) workarounds as negative disturbances that need to be avoided. IS design literature has emphasised the need to incorporate user behaviour in emergent IS design. Surprisingly, information systems research has kept the literatures on workarounds and IS design separate and remains silent on how workaround behaviour can inform information system design. In this research, we explore six workarounds in two case organisations and analyse the connections between them. We develop the concept of digital desire paths to describe the process how information system designers improve the system design by observing how users use and work around the system. Digital desire paths offer a novel interpretation of workarounds as input for information systems design and thereby serve as instance of the principle of guided emergence in action design research.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/0960085X.2024.2313537

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