ABSTRACT

The goal of an information systems designer is to create useful applications (apps) for individuals and groups by combining existing technologies. This can be a problem since new technologies are emerging constantly. This article presents a step towards solving one facet of this complex problem: how to create both useful and desirable apps when the unit of analysis is the individual-using-a-toolset. Specifically, I present a framework for guiding the creation of useful & desirable apps derived from basic principles of distributed cognition and of service science, in particular the principles of expert systems and value co-creation, respectively. The framework consists of four steps: (1) find a task requiring individual expertise, which has value-either economic, social, or cognitive; (2) discover the skills needed to perform the task using current technologies; (3) design a new distribution of skills across new technologies, that allows users to take advantage of the basic cognitive skills that all people possess; (4) execute the realization of the app. I apply this framework to the task of representing the human figure. The resulting app allows even non-artists to represent a human figure in an imagined pose, using technology originally intended for building multi-user virtual environments. I present the results from students using this app, and end with a discussion of how to generalize the framework to larger units of analyses.