An automated repository of user engagement methods and tools for digital social innovation projects

Abstract

Social innovation is a term that is increasingly used and many different de?nitions are given. Social innovation projects are mainly carried out by organizations whose primary purposes are social. User engagement is constructed out of user involvement, which is de?fined as a psychological state of users towards an organisation or project and user participation. User participation is explained as behaviour of users that is perceived during the development stage of a system. User engagement refers to either one of these de?finitions, or both. For a social innovation project, user engagement is a critical factor. If users are not participating proactively in the project, the possibility of the project failing can rise. Therefore, it is important that the right methods are applied to increase the user engagement within such a project. In order to increase user engagement within a social innovation project, the right methods have to be selected in order to do so. The process of selecting the right methods is a challenging task. A repository containing different methods can support in the decision making task of choosing the right method. A comprehensive repository of methods and tools to increase user engagement is not available. The main goal is to build a repository of methods and tools in order to increase user engagement within ICT-based social innovation projects, that is detailed to an operational level and usable enough to be exploited by project managers. A prototype of an automated repository is created with twenty-three methods to increase user engagement as content, and can be exploited by project managers.