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A Double Helix Metaphor for Use and Usefulness in Informing Systems’

Author

  • Peter Bednar
  • Christine Welch

Summary, in English

Following the theme of this monograph, this paper discusses a dialectic

we perceive to subsist between meaningful use and reflection upon use.

This dialectic between experiencing use and reflecting upon experiencing

use (or thinking, and thinking about thinking) may be considered in

the following way. Each of these elements is subject to change. As reflection triggers change in use, and such change triggers further reflection, a spiral comes about. Lived human experience, and reflection

upon that experience, seems to shape a double helix. In this paper, the

authors suggest a need for a hermeneutically-informed, phenomenological

approach when considering the complexities of informing systems,

viewed as human activity systems. It is suggested that human actors,

as users of informing systems, must own and control any inquiry

into use in relation to design for themselves, and that individual sensemaking processes are the key to successful interaction within the double helix metaphor.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

273-295

Publication/Series

Informing Science: the International Journal of An Emerging Transdiscipline

Volume

10

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Informing Science Institute

Topic

  • Information Systems, Social aspects

Keywords

  • Informing Systems
  • Phenomenology
  • Use
  • Usefulness
  • HermeneuticsDouble Helix.

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1521-4672