Shneiderman’s design principles for creativity support tools
Ben Shneiderman's work is deeply influential in HCI; his work has assisted in creating strong connections between tech and creativity, especially when applied to fostering innovation.
his 2007 national science foundation funded report on creativity support tools, led by UMD, provides a seminal overview of the definitions of creativity at that time.
flow
in this context, flow is a psychological state of being completely absorbed in a activity that feels both effortless and challenging.
the full manuscript is dense, yet thoughtful and engaging.
Csikszentmihalyi’s characterization of creativity as flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihaly's work is deeply influential in psychology, education, and HCI because he discusses how one can achieve higher levels of happiness by engaging in activities they find meaningful.
Boden’s conception of creativity as “exploration and play”
Margaret Boden, research professor at University of Sussex, has provided pivotal work in the exploration of creativity using interdisciplinary research across music, game, story, physics, and artificial intelligence to explore human creativity in arts, science, and life.
Identifying this vagueness, Remy et al. [112] point out that creativity can simultaneously refer to the “creativity of the outcome”, “the usability of the tool itself”, or “the productivity of the process [as mediated through] CST”.
creativity can mean different things at the same time.
Simply put, creativity is a noun performing the work of an adjective.
to further simplify, creativity is used as a noun (a thing) but functions as an adjective (a descriptive word).