Supporting creative and reflective processes

Creativity has long been seen as a mysterious process. A better understanding of the nature of creativity and the processes that underpin it are needed in order to be able to make contributions to the design of creativity support tools. In this paper, current theories of creativity and models of the creative process are discussed and an empirical study outlined of participants individually and collaboratively undertaking two creative tasks in different domains. The tasks ‘write a poem’ and ‘design a poster’ were carried out via two media; pen and paper and with the use of a computer and software tools. Schön's theory of reflection-in-action is applied to the study results. The research has generated software requirements for tools to support these specific creative tasks, and also initial design features to enable support for group reflection of evolving creative artefacts.     

Affective judgment in creative design: A method of fitness evaluation to the problem/solution spaces

A method of fitness evaluation to the problem/solution spaces is proposed based on the affective judgment in creative design. Six experienced designers and one-hundred-one users participated in a set of exploratory experiments on affective judgement of automobile design. From the experimental data, we identify the differences in designer's affective appeal in a design and user's affective response to the design. From data analysis, we confirm the general validity of that the ‘creative’ aspect of design can be described by introducing the notions of ‘default’ and ‘surprise’ problem/solution spaces. The affective judgments based on the expectations of designers and users are shown to be an effective alternative to quantitative metrics in design evaluation and concept selection. The presented findings suggested that the success and creativity are not the same, the goal of design practice is to find solutions that are both creative and successful.     

Decentring the Creative Self: How Others Make Creativity Possible in Creative Professional Fields

Since its inception, the psychology of creativity has been concerned primarily with the study of individual creators. In contrast, this research is dedicated to an exploration of (a) who has a significant impact on a creative professional's activity and (b) what the contribution is that others make to creative outcomes. The research included interviews with 60 professionals working in science and creative industries in France. The following categories of others emerged: family and friends, peers and students, clients and funders, critics and gatekeepers, and the general public – and they were related to themes depicting the interaction between these different others and the creator. Findings reveal both similarities and differences across the five domains in terms of the specific contribution of others to the creative process. Social interactions play a key formative, regulatory, motivational and informational role in relation to creative work. From ‘internalized’ to ‘distant’, other people are an integral part of the equation of creativity calling for a de‐centring of the creative self and its re‐centring in a social space of actions and interactions.     

A genetic algorithm for a creativity matrix cubic space clustering: A case study in Mazandaran Gas Company

Creativity is a promoting factor in organizations. Having employees in structured and organized configurations in a creative manner, helps in improving the productivity. We investigate different structural aspects of teams’ network organization and the creativity within a knowledge development program (KDP). The proposed methodology being equipped with a heuristic clustering technique, classifies the employees with respect to creativity parameters and configures a creativity matrix. Applying the creativity matrix, clustering is performed via mathematical programming. For large problems, a genetic algorithm (GA) is developed to solve the mathematical model. We also employ the Taguchi method to evaluate the effects of different operators and parameters on the performance of GA. A case study conducted in Mazandaran Gas Company in Iran illustrates the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

Review

Abstract

The article analyses the creativity in a particular category of interactive products—personal portfolio websites. Most of the designers embraced the advantages of a digital portfolio which include the ability to make an unlimited number of copies at a very low price, availability through email and presence on the global job market. In trying to impress possible employers, designers often got more concerned with following advices offered by web design agencies on the web today rather than focusing on the quality of user experience. The question is can the rules of good web portfolio design be defined and/or can they be perceived as a process of creating new choices out of a prevailing set of options? The goal of this article is to provide an overview of work in this area and analyses it to speculate on what makes web portfolio creative as a narrative interactive product.     

Exploratory Study of Organizational Creativity in Creative Organizations

The creative industries represent an important and growing sector of the UK economy. This paper explores organizational creativity in firms within the creative industries. A questionnaire based on both Amabile's ‘Organizational Creativity’ model and Ekvall's ‘Creative Climate’ model was completed in ten firms in different sectors of the creative industries. Follow‐up interviews with five firms were also conducted, to compare the outputs from each model as well as the variation in responses from firms in different sectors. The results indicate that both models of organizational creativity are complementary, although not necessarily fully applicable in the creative industries. Specific differences between firms in the graphic design/branding sector and firms in product design were also observed.     

Breaking the rules in interactive media design education

In today's interactive media design it is difficult for a designer to create aesthetic innovations and to break free from ordinariness. The most important factor limiting interactive media design aesthetics is that education seems to be more focused on following traditional rules of interaction design rather than innovative approaches. These rules limit creativity and often relegate design students to producing ordinary interface solutions. This is especially burdensome for us as teachers. In order to address this problem, we developed an education model inspired by Lars von Trier's film Five Obstructions. We call this model ‘breaking the rules’. In the ‘breaking the rules’ approach students produce, within a range of probabilities, design problem solutions in cases of total or partial visual/auditory/tactile obstructions. The most important outputs of the model are (1) to make design student think/look outside of the ordinary, (2) to produce unusual solutions, (3) to maximise design solutions with sound.     

The Creation and Management of Cultural Clusters

This paper analyses two cultural clusters, the Westergasfabriek (WGF) in Amsterdam and the Witte de Withstraat (WdW) in Rotterdam, and evaluates their contrasting creative management strategies. The WGF has to date been fairly successful in creating an attractive mix of different cultural activities, based on the creative potential of the buildings on the site, its image as a cultural centre and the general atmosphere of creativity. The more ‘top–down’ approach of the Local Authority owned but commercially managed WFG has injected new commercial skills and investment into the cluster, and creates the conditions for innovation through managing the mix of creative functions. The WdW, on the other hand, takes a more ‘bottom–up’ approach to the problems of cultural management, and so far the participants have resisted the imposition of formal management. This may allow cultural and commercial functions to co–exist more easily, but, thus far, there seems to be less evidence of innovation.     

Virtual reality application influences cognitive load-mediated creativity components and creative performance in engineering design

Virtual reality (VR) can promote design performance, and may generate a high cognitive load and affect creative design thinking as well. In order to examine the effect of VR application on cognitive load and engineering design creativity, this study recruited 81 eighth-grade students as participants and employed a non-equivalent-groups quasi-experimental design to examine how VR application influences creativity components and creative performance. A creativity component scale (creative motivation, creative thinking, and professional cognition), a measurement of creative performance, and a cognitive load scale were used to collect data. The study also investigated the ability of VR application to predict creativity components and creative performance, using cognitive load as the mediator. The conclusions are as follows: (1) VR application had marked effects on professional cognition and creative motivation but no effect on creative thinking skills. (2) VR application had marked effects on the novelty and usefulness aspects of creative performance, particularly with respect to usefulness. (3) VR application had marked effects on extraneous and germane cognitive load, but no influence on intrinsic cognitive load, and (4) Both VR application and cognitive load were able to predict creativity components and creative performance. Their abilities to predict creative performance approached an acceptable level. Nevertheless, VR application had no effect on general creative thinking skills; therefore, other teaching strategies are needed to strengthen creative thinking.     

Utilizing sensor data to model students’ creativity in a digital environment

While creativity is essential for developing students’ broad expertise in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields, many students struggle with various aspects of being creative. Digital technologies have the unique opportunity to support the creative process by (1) recognizing elements of students’ creativity, such as when creativity is lacking (modeling step), and (2) providing tailored scaffolding based on that information (intervention step). However, to date little work exists on either of these aspects. Here, we focus on the modeling step. Specifically, we explore the utility of various sensing devices, including an eye tracker, a skin conductance bracelet, and an EEG sensor, for modeling creativity during an educational activity, namely geometry proof generation. We found reliable differences in sensor features characterizing low vs. high creativity students. We then applied machine learning to build classifiers that achieved good accuracy in distinguishing these two student groups, providing evidence that sensor features are valuable for modeling creativity.     

How have we evaluated software pattern application? A systematic mapping study of research design practices

ContextSoftware patterns encapsulate expert knowledge for constructing successful solutions to recurring problems. Although a large collection of software patterns is available in literature, empirical evidence on how well various patterns help in problem solving is limited and inconclusive. The context of these empirical findings is also not well understood, limiting applicability and generalizability of the findings.ObjectiveTo characterize the research design of empirical studies exploring software pattern application involving human participants.MethodWe conducted a systematic mapping study to identify and analyze 30 primary empirical studies on software pattern application, including 24 original studies and 6 replications. We characterize the research design in terms of the questions researchers have explored and the context of empirical research efforts. We also classify the studies in terms of measures used for evaluation, and threats to validity considered during study design and execution.ResultsUse of software patterns in maintenance is the most commonly investigated theme, explored in 16 studies. Object-oriented design patterns are evaluated in 14 studies while 4 studies evaluate architectural patterns. We identified 10 different constructs with 31 associated measures used to evaluate software patterns. Measures for ‘efficiency’ and ‘usability’ are commonly used to evaluate the problem solving process. While measures for ‘completeness’, ‘correctness’ and ‘quality’ are commonly used to evaluate the final artifact. Overall, ‘time to complete a task’ is the most frequently used measure, employed in 15 studies to measure ‘efficiency’. For qualitative measures, studies do not report approaches for minimizing biases 27% of the time. Nine studies do not discuss any threats to validity.ConclusionSubtle differences in study design and execution can limit comparison of findings. Establishing baselines for participants’ experience level, providing appropriate training, standardizing problem sets, and employing commonly used measures to evaluate performance can support replication and comparison of results across studies.     

Organizing Individual and Collective Creativity: Flying in the Face of Creativity Clichés

The growing complexity of problems requires collective solutions to produce creative outcomes. Organizational theory on creativity has been extensively developed in recent decades, but two problematic issues remain. First, no current comprehensive model explains the development of collective creativity. Second, no empirical research has been conducted on the process of theory dissemination and its relevance within the managerial community. This paper provides evidence which can inform the design of collective creative projects within organizations, flying in the face of some managerial clichés. We design a research project which enables managerial sensemaking to emerge and which proposes a comprehensive approach to the design of team creativity. From a research design involving 24 managers and 98 eleven‐person groups, results confirm that creativity is not only about creative genius, and design for creativity is not a matter of linear correlation but implies a more sophisticated and integrative approach according to which individual creative skills, team dynamics and organizational solutions interact with each other to produce a collective creative performance.     

Proteus vs. social identity effects on virtual brainstorming

ABSTRACT

Avatars are known to influence behaviour through their individual identity cues (Proteus effect) and through their shared identity cues (Social identity effect). The aim of this study was to investigate these two processes in a crossed design, in order to examine their interaction in the context of a brainstorming task. To activate the Proteus effect, we used creative avatars resembling inventors, and to make social identity salient, we made the avatars wear the traditional clothing of the participants’ school. The resulting factorial design included four conditions: creative avatars with or without social identity cues, and non-creative avatars with or without social identity cues. The results show that creative performance was higher with creative than non-creative avatars, but only in the absence of social identity cues. Furthermore, the presence of social identity cues increased social identification to the group, but this unexpectedly decreased creative performance. This result is discussed together with an analysis of the meaning of the social identity cues we used, which appeared to be unrelated to creativity. This discussion highlights that the effects of social identity cues on performance are complex and may be moderated by their meaning and the particular facet of social identity they make salient.     

The perceived importance and the presence of creative potential in the health professional's work environment

The value of creative employees to an organisation's growth and innovative development, productivity, quality and sustainability is well established. This study examined the perceived relationship between creativity and work environment factors of 361 practicing health professionals, and whether these factors were present (realised) in their work environment. Job design (challenges, team work, task rotation, autonomy) and leadership (coaching supervisor, time for thinking, creative goals, recognition and incentives for creative ideas and results) were perceived as the most important factors for stimulating creativity. There was room for improvement of these in the work environment. Many aspects of the physical work environment were less important. Public health sector employers and organisations should adopt sustainable strategies which target the important work environment factors to support employee creativity and so enhance service quality, productivity, performance and growth. Implications of the results for ergonomists and workplace managers are discussed with a participatory ergonomics approach recommended.

Practitioner summary: Creative employees are important to an organisation's innovation, productivity and sustainability. The survey identified health professionals perceive a need to improve job design and leadership factors at work to enhance and support employee creativity. There are implications for organisations and ergonomists to investigate the creative potential of work environments.     

A multipopulation genetic algorithm aimed at multimodal optimization

This paper considers a new method that enables a genetic algorithm (GA) to identify and maintain multiple optima of a multimodal function, by creating subpopulations within the niches defined by the multiple optima, thus warranting a good ‘diversity’. The algorithm is based on a splitting of the traditional GA into a sequence of two processes. Since the GA behavior is determined by the exploration/exploitation balance, during the first step (Exploration), the multipopulation GA coupled with a speciation method detects the potential niches by classifying ‘similar’ individuals in the same population. Once the niches are detected, the algorithm achieves an intensification (Exploitation), by allocating a separate portion of the search space to each population. These two steps are alternately performed at a given frequency. Empirical results obtained with F6 Schaffer‘s function are then presented to show the reliability of the algorithm.     

How Individualism-Collectivism Moderates the Effects of Rewards on Creativity and Innovation: A Comparative Review of Practices in Japan and the US

Recent research has shown that the relationship between rewards and creative performance is complex: while rewards increase creativity in some situations, they are detrimental to creative performance in others. The present paper explores the role of cross-cultural differences in moderating some effects of rewards on creativity and innovation. I focus on individualism-collectivism and its related differences in motivation, cognition and emotion. I then propose five ways in which differences in I-C between Japan and the US moderate the effects of incentives on creative performance and innovation in these nations. Specifically, I claim that organizations in individualistic and collectivist cultures differ on: Effects of rewards on intrinsic motivation, effects of in-group versus out-group controlled rewards, effects of group vs. individual based incentives, reactions to in-group and out-group competition, and the effects of members’ identification with the organization on their innovation efforts. The notion of ‘congruence’ is offered as a theoretical framework for explaining the proposed ideas. Recommendations and implications of these prepositions for management of creativity in a cross-cultural work force are discussed.     

Addressing Constraints Creatively: How New Design Software Helps Solve the Dilemma of Originality and Feasibility

Are designers doomed to sacrifice creativity when integrating new product development processes? Although many studies highlight the need to produce original and innovative designs, maintaining creativity in the design process continues to be difficult due to industrial constraints. Thus, creativity is restricted to phases in the ‘fuzzy front end’ to avoid those constraints that might effectively kill it. However, constraints are also acknowledged as a resource for creativity, as has previously been shown with artists and engineers. Thus, we pose the following research question: In which cases can a constraint be a resource for creativity? To answer this question, we investigate different types of computer‐aided design (CAD) software. Relying on an experimental method, we compare the performance of those types of software at the so‐called design gap where design sketches are transformed into digital models. We show that some CAD software enables designers to work under additional constraints, be more creative and avoid the trade‐off between robustness and creativity, and that understanding this performance means appreciating that such software enables designers to play with the embedded constraints to reveal associated fixations and to design models that follow the constraint but overcome the fixation. Constraints and creativity are linked by two competing processes: constraints decrease the degree of freedom and, as a result, creative possibilities, but embedding constraints increases the awareness of fixations and therefore the capacity to design original models. Today, new CAD tools more effectively support the second process, which leads to ‘acquired originality’ in design.     

A View on Creative Cities Beyond the Hype

Fuelled by the influential work of urban guru Richard Florida, the European knowledge economy is seeing a rise of cities calling themselves ‘creative cities’. In this paper we have a look at the concept of creative cities and offer a view on them beyond the hype. We understand ‘creative cities’ as competitive urban areas that combine both concentration, diversity, instability as well as a positive image. Examples of creative cities in history and recent best practice of two such urban areas in Europe (Øresund and Manchester) show that local governments cannot plan knowledge, creativity and innovation from scratch. We conclude, however, that local governments can increase the chance that urban creativity emerges by providing the appropriate framework conditions.