Living Labs in Design Research: A Conceptual Approach for Structuring Information Systems Design Research

Design research is becoming more and more accepted and integrated in Information Systems (IS) research. In this paper we address the research activities of IS design research and how the activities are dependent on participation from business and governmental institutions to a higher extent than in traditional research. Our contribution is the introduction of the concept of Living Lab as a conceptual approach for structuring IS design research that we argue offer a way of securing the involvement of all necessary participants to complete a IS design research project. We illustrate the use of the Living Lab concept with a research project were the approach was used to redesign and improve customs and taxations export procedures through advanced ICT. © The Authors 2008.