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User-Centered Design of a Web-Based Platform for the Sustainable Development of Tourism Services in a Living Lab Context

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Smart Organizations and Smart Artifacts

Abstract

The tourism sector in the Gorenjska region, where outstanding natural, historical and geographical potentials are supported by national and regional policies, still faces many challenges in terms of attracting more tourists for longer periods. We address this problem with an open innovation approach, bringing together tourism service providers, end-users (tourists), information and communication technology providers and policy makers; and with the establishing of a regional tourism living lab, which is a real life environment in which researchers, developers and users are co-creating new products or services. We describe the process and experiences of the user-centered design of the web-based platform for sustainable development of tourism services in a living lab context. The phases of the co-design process of web platform development are described, from idea formation through prototype development, testing, and gathering user feedback through several workshops. The final outcome, the “GoGorenjska” web platform, is presented, and further research is outlined. Based on the feedback from tourism service providers and tourists, we can conclude that the platform itself has vast open innovation potential, providing a critical mass of users in the phase of full production on the market.

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Correspondence to Andreja Pucihar .

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Pucihar, A., Malešič, A., Lenart, G., Borštnar, M.K. (2014). User-Centered Design of a Web-Based Platform for the Sustainable Development of Tourism Services in a Living Lab Context. In: Caporarello, L., Di Martino, B., Martinez, M. (eds) Smart Organizations and Smart Artifacts. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07040-7_24

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