Designing as Trading-off: A Practice-based View on Smart Service Systems

Posture-related problems, such as back pain, are an increasing global burden. They are deeply intertwined with how humans sit. While the information systems (IS) literature has been relatively silent on this matter, emerging literature in related disciplines has begun to attend to this problem by developing various artefacts. However, researchers have oftentimes done so by basing their artefacts on engineering rationales and attending only limitedly to the interactions between artefacts and humans. These interactions are crucial because data on posture is best collected by placing sensors on humans’ backs. This calls for considering and evaluating how bodies move in relation to sensors, the emotive reactions of humans to sensors and how humans make sense of recommendations emanating from underlying artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. We uncover what these considerations of human-centredness mean for designing smart service systems for posture management and suggest that a core consideration relates to trading-off possibilities of smart technologies and necessities emerging from practices. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on designing smart service systems and responds to calls for more IS research dealing with the prevention of chronic health conditions.