IT systems such as computers, personal digital assistants, motion, smoke and fire sensors, pool alarms, home alarms, and security cameras have become common household necessities that communicate simpler, faster, and better by enhancing security and accessibility in both social and business fields. Besides, unlike the use of hi-tech computer programs, the use of IT at home has enabled individuals to stay in touch with friends and families and share unlimited information as well as interests.
Additionally, professionals in human services and social workers have greatly benefitted from IT since it has facilitated the exchange of information, knowledge, and access to empirical data from homes. Moreover, it has been utilized by business people to communicate and make transactions from their residences. On the other hand, design science has been used in the IT research cycle on IT in households. It provides solutions to identified household problems through evaluation and creation of IT artifacts.
This problem-solving paradigm, besides deriving its base from engineering and the science of the artificial, creates innovations that enable efficient and effective accomplishment of the information system. This is achieved through management, design, implementation, and analysis of products, technical capabilities, practices, and ideas. The design science paradigm artifacts also work on the natural laws theory and behavioral theory. The artifacts used to address the IT household problems include instantiations, methods, models, and constructs.
The latter is used to provide language communication for solutions if IT problems while the model represents the solution space, design problem, and the real-world solution. There are quite a number of methods that are imperative when exploring design science. Firstly, solutions can be sought by offering informal guidance or through the use of texts. A more complicated approach may entail the use of mathematical algorithms. On the other hand, the implementation of methods, models, or constructs in a working system is carried out through instantiations.
The intended purpose and sustainability of an artifact are concretely assessed by the instantiations. Also, besides demonstrating feasibility, they help households to know how the use of artifacts affects the world.