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Creativity Support Tools

Introduction​

This paper reports on a U.S. National Science Foundation workshop that gathered experts to discuss advancing creativity support tools (CST). It aims to establish CST as a research field and develop principles that enhance creative processes across disciplines, from engineering to the arts.

Target​

This research is broadly applicable to software that supports creative processes, such as design, engineering, and art, making it valuable for anyone interested in enhancing creative productivity through software.

Key Insights​

  • Creativity Support as an Emerging Field: The field of creativity support tools is new and evolving, requiring a framework that incorporates both theoretical and practical elements.
  • 12 Design Principles for CST:
    • Support Exploration: Allow users to freely explore ideas.
    • Low Threshold, High Ceiling, Wide Walls: Make tools accessible to novices yet powerful for experts, and versatile for varied approaches.
    • Support Multiple Paths and Styles: Enable diverse creative processes.
    • Enable Collaboration: Design for group creativity, even remotely.
    • Promote Open Interchange: Support interoperability with other tools.
    • Simplicity: Simplify features for ease of use without losing functionality.
    • Carefully Use Black Boxes: Transparency in tool processes enhances understanding.
    • Design for Self-Use: Create tools that developers would find helpful themselves.
    • Balance Suggestions with Observation: Involve user feedback and participatory design.
    • Iterate Constantly: Emphasize continuous improvement.
    • Target Designers: Focus on usability for creative professionals.
    • Evaluate Tools Regularly: Assess effectiveness continuously.
  • Evaluation Methods: Advocates for multidimensional in-depth longitudinal case studies (MILCs) over short, controlled experiments, as they capture richer insights into creative processes.

Supporting Data​

  • Field Studies and Ethnographic Data: Workshop participants recommended MILCs, drawing from psychology and HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) methods to evaluate long-term impacts on creativity.

Other Insights​

  • Social Creativity and Collaboration: Emphasis on tools that support social creativity, where creativity is recognized and validated by peers, aligning with theories by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on social dimensions of creativity.
  • New Media Arts: Insights from new media arts suggest that CST could benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration, drawing from art and technology.

Practical Applications​

  • Designing for Flexibility: Software designers should ensure that CST allows users to experiment and pursue multiple creative paths, supporting different workflows.
  • Implement Collaboration Features: Facilitate real-time or asynchronous collaboration in CST.
  • Embed Evaluation Processes: Adopt MILCs for evaluating CST to understand their effectiveness deeply, capturing both quantitative and qualitative impacts on creative work.

Reference​

Shneiderman, B., Fischer, G., Czerwinski, M., Resnick, M., & Myers, B. 2006. Creativity Support Tools: Report from a U.S. National Science Foundation Sponsored Workshop. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 20(2), 61–77.