Integrating the Visual Design Discipline with Information Systems Research and Practice

This paper examines the relationship between visual design and information systems (IS) design and describes how IS theory and practice has viewed visual design (an aesthetic discipline) from a positivist perspective. First, we present a rationale for the current view of aesthetics from the positivistic IS discipline. After tracing the philosophical development of aesthetics and its associated disciplines, we then follow the more recent development of positivism and the scientific method. Based on assertions by both philosophers and IS researchers, we examine the differing perspectives of the aesthetic and positivist disciplines from an IS vantage point. We propose that visual aesthetic design be integrated with IS theory and describe the benefits that are potentially gained from this transdisciplinary approach.