Eudaimonia, rooted in ancient Greek philosophy, denotes a state of flourishing characterized by realizing one's full potential, virtue, and meaning in life. In contemporary conversation, human flourishing is more than the absence of distress. It involves a sense of purpose, accomplishment, and well-being. This concept is relevant in sociotechnical digital design—the creation, implementation, and use of digital technologies to support people in achieving their goals.
CHERISH is a knowledge co-creation hub with a good mix of technological, methodological, and domain expertise:
- Technological expertise: Extended reality (XR), LLM-based conversational agents, AI-augmented decision support systems, non-fungible token (NFT), educational robots, immersive training environment.
- Methodological expertise: Design Science Research (DSR), experiment, artifact analysis, mixed-method design.
- Domain expertise: Health and care service innovation, digital innovation in education, hybrid work and life balance, experience economy, multisensory digital experience, digital inclusion for users with special needs and disabilities.
PhD programme in Social Sciences
Conference: Sense and Movement in the Digital Age, 29-30 January 2026
Why this conference?
We no longer design only for screens, but for an expanding range of digital technologies that provide real-time feedback based on increasingly precise sensory and movement data. Access to movement-based technology and generative AI has become integrated into our daily lives, enhancing well-being, health, sports, and safety. As digital technologies move closer and closer to the body, what does this mean for our senses and our movement? How does it influence design efforts, the artifacts we create, and our research trajectories?
During the conference, we will participate in movement-based and pedagogical workshops, as well as listen to keynotes from the UK, Austria, and Norway. We will also engage in research discussions on the topic of sense and movement
Conference program
Please register here:
https://uia.pameldingssystem.no/sense-and-movement-in-the-digital-age
Click to download the program :-)
Keeping up with the CHERISHers
16 December 2025
Baustein got the AIS Senior Scholar's Award for the Best Information Systems Publication in 2024! Here's the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/isj.12516
6 December 2025
Leona gave a keynote address at the opening of the Indian Management Research Conference at IIM Ahmedabad. The talk was about the science for what comes next--highlighting the importance of design research. The lighting ceremony is an unforgettable experience!
18 September 2025
Leona was Program Chair for the Wirtschaftsinformatik 2025 (German IS conference). She organized the conference together with Jan vom Brocke (AIS President-Elect), Tobias Brandt, and Ann-Kristin Cordes. It happened to be the 20th anniversary. They celebrated in the 20s style. They were so grateful for the presence of international friends and colleagues, such as Tuure Tuunanen, Sue Brown, Dorothy Leidner (AIS President), Robert Davison, Samir Chatterjee. The new Research Spotlight format was generously supported by Senior Editors from major IS journals (EJIS, JAIS, MISQ, ISR, JMIS, JSIS, ISJ, BISE, and JIT): Alexander Belian, Jens Dibbern, Oliver Hinz, Hanna Krasnova, Alexander Mädche, Gerhard Schwabe, Stefan Seidel, Matthias Söllner, Jason Thatcher, Daniel Veit, and Gottfried Vossen.
8 September 2025
Osama got research funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ)! It's the central bank of Sweden. The project will be conducted with Leona, Moutaz, Ameera, and Emma. The project focuses on investigating ongoing transformations within the banking industry in terms of transitioning into platform-based business models due to regulatory interventions such as PSD2 (and also the upcoming ones PSR and FiDA).
31 August 2025
Another good news! Our SequenceFlow project (led by Samrat and Mukul) has been selected as one of the innovative projects to receive a grant from ACM TMIS and WITS. This is in response to their call ‘Exploring Generative AI to Transform Research in Management Information Systems’. WITS is the premier forum for cutting-edge methodological advances in IS and held in conjunction with the International Conference on Information Systems. The grant will be used to support the computational needs for SequenceFlow.
25 August 2025
HEART project funded! The project is led by Michi from the University of Liechtenstein and co-designed with Dennis and Anna from the University of Koblenz. We have finally received the funding notification from the European Commission. HEART aims to design and evaluate learning tools that support authentic learning. We’ll keep you updated!
19 August 2025
Sonali surprised the CHERISHers with her lovely presence on our campus! She presented a paper coauthored with Neharika and Leona on the readiness for digital transformation at IRIS 2025 in Oslo. Her paper got selected as one of the best papers to be published in the conference proceedings. Chapeau!
12 August 2025
Leona joined a panel at Arendalsuka on AI and the artistic creation together with Daniel Nordgård (UiA), Ole Henrik Antonsen (NOPA), and Marius Øvrebø-Engemoen (GramArt).
7 August 2025
Leona gave an opening talk at Tech TENK Camp Kristiansand for girls aged 13 to 19 years old. She shared her personal journey into the tech world with the hope to inspire the girls to study and join tech.
July 2025
Leona moderated a panel on DSR and AI at TSWIM 2025 with Sue Brown, Olivia Sheng and Alan Dennis.
21-24 June 2025
Leona visited Oscar Diaz Garcia in San Sebastian to be in the PhD committee of Xabier Garmendia Diaz. Xabi and Oscar designed three tools which harness the power of AI while preserving human agency. The tools support students in conceptual mapping, problem scoping, and writing. Xabi obtained the highest award possible: the distinction! This is also the beginning of CHERISH collaboration with the ONEKIN research group. Besides discussing research, we were busy with a comparative Pintxo study in the quest of finding the best one—impossible!
17 June 2025
Sofie and Chris presented their paper on at ECIS 2025.
17-20 June 2025
Tim, Samrat, and Leona went to Oslo for a three-day workshop with the excellent team of Matthias Söllner from the University of Kassel. The team is known for their education technology focus. Tim presented his research idea only six weeks into his PhD journey. We are all very proud of him. Samrat talked about SequenceFlow, a joint design science research project between IIM Ahmedabad and CHERISH. We are grateful to our hostess Silvia Masieiro.
9-13 June 2025
Leona joined the CERN IdeaSquare journal team (Matteo and Lauri) in organizing and mentoring the first edition of the summer school for experimentation-driven methods. We were honored by the enthusiasm of PhD students and researchers from more than 15 countries and diverse disciplines. Special thanks to the team from AntiMatter Factory for the inspiring tour. Leona also had the chance to chat with Robert (WWW Co-founder), Markus, and Pablo. What a week full of insights and new ideas!!!
17-20 February 2025
Sofie and Leona visited University West, Sweden for a research workshop with Amir. We focused on immersive training. In addition, Leona also joined the evaluation committee for Jesse Katende’s mid-term PhD proposal. This visit will lead to a continuous collaboration on immersive training!
10-11 October 2024
The CHERISHers went on their very first research excursion to Oslo on 10-11 October 2024. Cathrine, Chris, Dicle, Felicia, Katherine, Leona, Sofie, and Maria (online) met at the Oslo School of Architecture and the University of Oslo. They proposed an action plan for the next months. The excursion wasn't complete without a visit to the Munch Museum and a night out Oslo style.
23-26 September 2024
Last week we presented our project ”VR Simulation for Promoting Self-Determination” at four different venues and had interesting discussions about the design process as well as the practical relevance of our project. We held a webinar in collaboration with University West, Sweden and another one in collaboration with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre of the Scottish Government and our own Centre for e-health at UiA. We also visited the competence development day of USHT - The Centre for Development of Institutional and Home Care Services. Finally, we visited the nearby town Risør to give a talk at Lørdagsuniversitetet and get insights from local citizens trying out our VR-scenarios.
26 August 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Johanna Lorenz for her successful defense of her thesis "Physical-Digital Perspectives on Bodily and Experiential Digital Innovation"! She was supervised by Jan Recker and mentored by Leona. We are all very proud of her brilliant work, passion, and dedication.
23 August 2024
Today, the "VR Simulation for Promoting Self-Determination" project tested three new VR scenarios. Fifteen healthcare professionals from Arendal municipality, who work with people with intellectual disabilities, joined the session at the XR-lab in Grimstad. They explored the VR environments and later discussed ethical dilemmas in guided reflection sessions led by social nursing experts. One participant said, "It felt like I was really there, sitting in the living room, watching it all happen. It was incredibly real!"
8 May 2024
Dr. Ashna Mahmood Zada has successfully defended her thesis! Leona served as her committee member together with Matti Rossi and Markus Löchtefeld. She was supervised by Peter Axel Nielsen and John Stubby Persson. She studied roadmapping in the digital transformation of environmental assessment. Chapeau to Ashna for this excellent and timely work!
18 June 2024
Leona joined the Industry Innovation Forum at the European Conference on Information Systems in Paphos, Cyprus - one of the premier conferences in Information Systems. The panel also involved Jan vom Brocke, Annamina Rieder, Brian Donnellan, Bill Kettinger, and Matt Mullarkey.
4 June 2024
Sofie mentored PhD students for DESRIST 2024 Doctoral Consortium in Trollhättan, Sweden. Leona co-chaired the consortium and joined an expert panel discussion. DESRIST is the reference conference for design research in Information Systems. In addition to this, Sofie also presented a paper on VR training for promoting self determination in individuals with IDD. The response was positive and her engaging style triggered an insightful discussion.
International associated members and collaborators
Abena Asante, Founder, ETH Hackathon, Switzerland
Alemayehu Molla, Professor, RMIT, Australia
Boris Otto, Director, Fraunhofer ISST, Germany
Dennis Riehle, Professor, University of Koblenz, Germany
Emma Forsgren, Lecturer, University of Leeds, UK
Frederik Møller, Professor, TU Braunschweig, Germany
Isabella Seeber, Associate Professor, GEM, France
Jan Recker, Nucleus Professor, University of Hamburg, Germany
Jeffrey Nickerson, Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology, USA
Johanna Lorenz, Postdoctoral Researcher, Technical University of Hamburg, Germany
Johannes Schneider, Associate Professor, University of Liechtenstein
Juuli Jumivalo, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Katharina Drechsler, Assistant Professor, University of Cologne, Germany
Kieran Conboy, Professor, University of Galway, Ireland
Lea Püchel, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Münster, Germany
Lise Amy Hansen, Professor, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway
Matteo Vignoli, Associate Professor, University of Bologna, Italy
Megha Schauwecker, Founder, Metabloqs, Switzerland
Michael Gau, Senior Scientist, University of Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein
Osama Mansour, Associate Professor, Lund University, Sweden
Samrat Gupta, Associate Professor, IIM Ahmedabad, India
Sanaz Nabavian, PhD Candidate, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Sonali Narbariya, Assistant Professor, NMIMS Mumbai, India
Thorsten Schoormann, Associate Professor, Roskilde University, Denmark
Tuure Tuunanen, Professor, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Projects
METIS: Future-Proofing Medical Education through Emerging Technologies for Enhanced Social Resilience (Funder: European Commission)
Platformization in the Banking Industry (Funder: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond)
HEART: GenAI-based System for Authentic Learning (Funder: European Commission)
SequenceFlow: Meaning-Aware Recommender System for Task Configuration (Funder: ACM TMIS and WITS 2025)
AI-bility: Cultivating AI Awareness for Schoolchildren (Funder: European Commission)Read more here: https://ai-bility.eu
Technology-enabled Services for Marginalized Individuals (Funder: NAV)
VR Simulation for Promoting Self-Determination (Funder: Norwegian Directorate of Health)
CHERISH thematic areas
The design of digital technology should consider both the social and the technical components (i.e., sociotechnical system). Recent discourse on sociotechnical design in Information Systems unveiled the importance of understanding pragmatic and humanistic goals of using digital technology.
Thematic area #1: Digital design for well-being
One of our society’s most urgent challenges is the promotion of good health and wellbeing. This thematic area contributes by addressing the design of digital services for wellbeing that promotes abilities such as awareness, self-determination, social participation, and mental health. This will be achieved through participatory methods and with a focus on the inclusion of marginalized groups. Our primary application areas include immersive technologies and decision support systems.
Thematic area #2: Digital design for education
Educational research on digitalization spans various areas with diverse theoretical and methodological approaches. It has influenced national policies, curricula, and legal frameworks, while also shaping curriculum design, classroom interactions, educational software, digital content, and learning analytics. Additionally, it has provided updated insights into digital competences for teachers, school leaders, and students, as well as digital citizenship. In contrast, Information Systems research often focuses on specific technologies like conversational agents, social robots, and generative AI. Our goal is to merge these perspectives to create practical recommendations for designing digital technologies in education, from primary to higher education.
Thematic area #3: Digital design for humanistic pursuits
Information Systems research traditionally focused on supporting work activities: automation, business analytics, enterprise system architecture, legacy system, and many others. On the other hand, we can observe a strong research tradition on hedonic use, gamification, and digital experience. Our last thematic area explores the underexplored domains of digital design: how can digital technology be designed for humanistic pursuits, that is, not for work-related and other pragmatic goals? Examples of humanistic pursuits are artistic creation, play, sport, cultural exploration, and culinary appreciation.
Selected publications
Griva, A., Chandra Kruse, L., Hattinger, M., Högberg, K., Pappas, I., & Conboy, K. (Forthcoming). Making Space for Time: Strategies for the Design of Time-aware Hybrid Work.
Lorenz, J., Chandra Kruse, L., & Recker, J. (Forthcoming). Creating and Capturing Value with Physical-Digital Experiential Consumer Offerings. Journal of Management Information Systems.
Molla, A., Chandra Kruse, L., Karanasios, S., Cheong, C., & Hoang, G. (2024). Designing Information Systems for Infectious Disease Management under VUCA Situation: Insights from a Design Archaeology Analysis of COVIDSafe. Journal of the Association for Information Systems.
Schoormann, T., Möller, F., Chandra Kruse, L., & Otto, B. (2024). BAUSTEIN – A Design Tool for Configuring and Representing Design Research. Information Systems Journal.
Wass, S., Thygesen, E., & Purao, S. (2023). Principles to Facilitate Social Inclusion for Design-Oriented Research. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(5), 1204-1247.
Chandra Kruse, L., Bergener, K., Conboy, K., Lundström, J. E., Maedche, A., Sarker, S., Seeber, I., Stein, A., & Tømte, C. E. (2023). Understanding the Digital Companions of Our Future Generation. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 52, 465-479.
Chandra Kruse, L., & Drechsler, K. (2022). Digitalization of Multisensory Collective Activities: The Case of Virtual Wine Tasting. Journal of Information Technology, 37(4), 341-358.
Chandra Kruse, L., Purao, S., & Seidel, S. (2022). How Designers Use Design Principles: Design Behaviors and Application Modes. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 23(5), 1235-1270.
Gregor, S., Chandra Kruse, L., & Seidel, S. (2020). Research Perspective: The Anatomy of a Design Principle. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 21(6), 1622-1652.
Seidel, S., Chandra Kruse, L., Székely, N., Gau, M., & Stieger, D. (2018). Design Principles for Sensemaking Support Systems in Environmental Sustainability Transformations. European Journal of Information Systems, 27(2), 221-247. (ABS 4)