Approaching Visual Inquiry Tools through the Lens of Systems Thinking: the Proposal of a Digital Inquiry Platform

Today's landscape is shaped by wicked problems, characterised by their uniqueness and diverse stakeholders. While Visual Inquiry Tools have emerged to help address these problems in a collaborative and non-linear way, they fall short in providing both a holistic and detailed view of the problem and solutions, and they fail to account for evolving information. Additionally, their paper-based nature limits the collaboration of geographically dispersed stakeholders. All of which are inherent characteristics of wicked problems. Recognising these limitations, in this study, we explore how systems thinking can enhance Visual Inquiry Tools. We conduct a design science research project to integrate systems thinking into Visual Inquiry Tools through digitalisation, resulting in co.LAB, an open-access Digital Inquiry Platform usable for IS scholars and practitioners alike. This research contributes to advancing IS research, deepening our understanding of how systems thinking, Visual Inquiry Tools, and digitalisation can intersect to help tackle wicked problems.