An approach to systemic innovation of information technology for emergency response

This paper reflects on the design challenges related to designing novel information technology for the domain of emergency response. The reflection is grounded in the concrete design objectives of a major European R&D project focussing on the novel information technology of wearable computing. Based on a concrete discussion of these challenges, the design objective is framed as supporting the systemic innovation of the socio-technical system composed of technology, users and their organisation. A number of specific design techniques used in the before-mentioned project are critically discussed in terms of their contribution to such a systemic innovation.