Aesthetics + creativity + technology = joyful user experiences
This week’s topic is all about creativity. I’m really excited about this one, if a little worried that I’ll struggle to get through all the reading and activities before my best friend’s wedding next weekend. But, because I’m keen to get stuck into the topic, I don’t feel as stressed as I think I might do if I found the subject matter less intriguing. (Maybe that speaks to my intrinsic motivations?)
I feel like there’s so much to dive into on this one, but first, I want to explore Professor Tanya Krzywinska’s talk on ‘Creativity and Innovation’ (2022). (I talk about my views on one specific academic distinction between these two concepts in my article ‘Pre-thinking Creativity’.)
One of the very first things Professor Krzywinska says in her introduction resonates with me enormously, namely that her main field of interest lies “in the way that aesthetics, creativity, and technology mutually inform each other and how together they can change our daily lives in positive ways”. I’ve just started reading a book called ‘Joyful’ by designer Ingrid Fetell Lee. In it, Fetell Lee describes the ten ‘aesthetics of joy’ to be found in the spaces and objects we interact with every day. A lot of what goes into those aesthetics – including ‘energy’, derived from the colours we choose to surround ourselves with, as well as ‘abundance’, including the variety of shapes and sensorial experiences we’re exposed to on a daily basis – involves a great deal of creativity, in the sense that we combine and utilise things in our world in novel ways to create new experiences. Add technology to the mix, and we can create experiences that are aesthetically appealing, inspired, and inspiring – all of which, if combined well, should lead to a delightful user experience. I think that’s a really lovely thought.
Artist and spectator = matched in creativity
Back to the talk.
Professor Krzywinska (2022) begins by outlining a few definitions of creativity. She cites artist Marcel Duchamp in particular, who states in his 1961 lecture entitled ‘The Creative Act’ that “the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualification and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives a final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten artists.”
This view of creativity places the artist and the spectator on an equal footing, suggesting that the creative processes that go into producing a piece of artwork are shared equally between the two. I find this to be a very liberating, freeing view of creativity, reinforcing the fact that creative acts are not the sole reserve of those who call themselves ‘artists’ – rather, we are all capable of engaging in creativity.
Duchamp also attests that all art is equally valid, be it “bad, good or indifferent [...] whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion.” Following this logic, we could say that all creative acts must always be considered 'creative', whether the creator or the intended beneficiary view this creativity as resulting in a positive, negative, or neutral experience. Again, to me, this is a highly liberating and motivating way of viewing creativity, giving me the confidence to ‘be creative’ safe in the knowledge that my attempts are legitimate, whether or not myself or others see them as a ‘success’ (something to bear in mind for this week's creative challenge activity…).
Embracing creativity in the development process: ICEDIP
According to Professor Krzywinska (2022), people tend to veer towards paths that are well-trodden and familiar, disregarding ideas and information that don’t appear to relate directly to the task or situation at hand. While employing this kind of ‘redundancy’ can be beneficial in helping us organise data and make sense of our surroundings without getting overwhelmed by extraneous information, it can also “act as a counterweight to innovation and creativity, as we are likely to overlook things that are not obvious or already known”. To counteract this, particularly when trying to develop novel ideas for apps and other technologies, we need to find ways to inject more creativity and ‘disruption’ into our development processes.
One way of doing this is to employ the ICEDIP method, developed by Geoff Petty. This model comprises six phases, spanning idea generation to development proper, all of which can and should be repeated many times, do not need to be deployed in a linear order (hence why the order in which I’ve listed the stages below doesn’t actually spell out ICEDIP), and can range in duration from a few minutes to several weeks or even months (Petty 2017: 8). Crucially, each phase of the model requires us to adopt different mindsets, ranging from free, open, and uninhibited, to strategic, unhurried, and critical.
The six phases (which, to stress, do not have to be followed in any particular order) are:
Inspiration, which involves generating as many ideas as possible, and requires us to be fearless, free, spontaneous, experimental, open, uncritical, and (particularly interesting to me) joyful (ibid: 9 and 63-71)
Clarification, which is where we consider the goals of the creative process, what we’re trying to achieve, and what problem we’re trying to solve. Here, we need to adopt a strategic, unhurried mindset (i.e. don’t do the wrong thing quickly), and continually question accepted practices to figure out the right approach for our particular situation (ibid: 10 and 133)
Distillation, which is where we look through our ideas and decide which we want to develop further, based on the goals established in the clarification phase. Here, we have to be careful not to let ‘workable’ ideas take us to where we want to go just because they are viable, adopting a positive, strategic, and intrepid (self-trusting) mindset (ibid: 11 and 135-148)
Perspiration, which is where we work persistently on our best ideas, improving them as we advance towards the goals outlined in the clarification phase. Improvement is key here – the first draft does not have to be perfect. Instead, we must explore and experiment, adopting a persevering, uncritical, enthusiastic, and responsive mindset (ibid: 11 and 148-160)
Evaluation, which is where we review our work in progress, seek out potential improvements, and check that we are still working towards our goals. This stage is particularly reflective and serves similar purposes to those of a critical reflective journal. Here, we need a critical, positive mindset underpinned by a willingness to learn (ibid: 11 and 164-168).
Incubation, which is where we take a step back (often literally) from our work and leave it alone for a while to give our subconscious mind to carry out further reflective work for us. With this kind of distance, we can later return to our work with new ideas for how to overcome blockers or reach our goals more effectively. Here, we need an unhurried, trusting mindset (ibid: 12 and 189-198). Krzywinska (2022) describes the incubation phase as “something that we tend to forget about”, in the sense that we forget to leave the time for reflection and distance from our ideas. Ironically, forgetfulness is exactly what we need to practice in the act of stepping away from something and letting the distance do its creative magic.
(I actually just practised a mini incubation phase by walking away from my laptop to get a snack and let everything I’ve just read sink in.) (Jammie Dodgers, in case you were wondering.)
I really like the principles of the ICEDIP method. It’s simple and straightforward, which I think is important for a methodology that’s meant to be accessible to anyone with the capacity to practice creativity – i.e. everyone.
I also really like Geoff Petty’s book from a language perspective. I learn well from good words – that is, language and phrasings that resonate with me on a personal and emotional level. Petty’s language is warm, enouraging, inspiring, straight-forward, thought-provoking, and entertaining, making his work overall very readable.
I particularly love how a lot of his advice applies as equally to creativity as it does to the wonderful complexities of life in general. Some of my favourite quotes include:
“Creative action is one of life’s greatest challenges, and so one of its greatest rewards. So why not learn how to do it? A mind and a life are terrible things to waste.” (ibid: 8) (putting that on a t-shirt at some point)
“Many brilliant ideas have occurred in the bath [...]” (ibid: 12) (they certainly have 😉)
“Most people take their poor ideas as a measure of their inability. This is nonsense. Poor ideas are inevitable, everybody has them.” (ibid: 28) (so THERE)
“Most of your ideas will not work. That’s fine.” (ibid: 30) (very reassuring)
“Your imagination is a virtually infinite and largely unexplored resource; how effective you are at mining it depends not so much on your imagination, but crucially on your ‘mindset’ while exploring it.” (ibid: 63) (love this – the way we think has a direct impact on how effectively we can harness our imagination and, in turn, our creativity)
“[...] we live in a culture where action is prized above thought, so many of us end up doing the wrong thing, even if we do it very well” (ibid: 107) (this goes back to what I was saying in a previous post about wanting to generate ideas and complete projects as quickly as possible…)
“In Chinese, the word ‘disaster’ also means ‘opportunity’.” (ibid: 160) (💛)
“Positive affirmation is the compost of creativity. It grows talent, quality, motivation and joy. It also nurtures the self-belief that makes progress possible.” (ibid: 168) (💛💛)
“[...] give yourself a break [...]” (ibid: 191) (💛💛💛)
“The more hope you have, the more likely you are to be successful, and the more successful you are, the higher your hopes.” (ibid: 214) (the power of positive thinking and self-belief – something I want to practise as much as I possibly can for the next two years and beyond)
I’ll talk more about this week’s ‘creativity’-themed challenge activity when I’ve done some more reading and/or when I’ve actually completed it. But I wanted to have a go at documenting my thoughts on my learning in the moment – that is, Schön’s “refelction-in-action” (cited in Boud 2001: 11). I’ve really enjoyed it, and I’ve found it useful to write down my thoughts on things I’m hearing and reading in ‘real time’ (with the caveat that’d I’d already read Petty’s book and made notes on it some weeks ago, so my reflections on those parts weren’t quite as ‘live’ as they could have been).
Some key takeaways for me:
Keep thinking about joy and my intrinsic motivations, as this seems to be cropping up quite a lot
Try to remember that, whether I or others deem my creative outputs as ‘successes’ or ‘failures’, I will still have carried them out as creative acts, which are valid and legitimately creative
Have a go at implementing some/all of the ICEDIP stages and their respective mindsets when carrying out this week’s challenge activity and/or future projects
Give myself a break when I need to – it’s actually incubation, and Geoff Petty says this is okay, so there.
💛
References
BOUD, David. 2001. ‘Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice.’ New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 2001(90), 9.
DUCHAMP, Marcel. 1961. The Creative Act. Available at: http://www.fiammascura.com/Duchamp.pdf [accessed 5 June 2022].
KRZYWINSKA, Tanya. 2022. Creativity & Innovation: Games and App Development.
PETTY, Geoff. 2017. How to be Better at Creativity. Lulu.com.
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