Approaching Recursively-Emergent Wicked Problems in Information System Design with a Designerly Epistemology of Practice

As computing has become integral to virtually every aspect of contemporary life, increasingly many information systems have assumed a recursively emergent character which presents “wicked problems” for information systems design. In this paper, we consider an epistemological view of design-as-verb grounded in first principles of a “designerly way” of knowing. We review the “wicked” nature of design in computing and propose a conceptual framework intended to further discourse on wicked problems in information systems design.