Building and Evaluating Creative Interaction
1Visionaries in Computer Science have long seen the computer as a tool to augment our intellect. However, while it is relatively straightforward to measure the impact of a tool or technique on task efficiency for well-defined tasks, it is much more difficult to measure computers' impact on higher-level cognitive processes, such as creativity. In my own research in Human-Computer Interaction, I create novel interaction techniques, but run up against the problem of trying to evaluate how these tools impact higher-level processes such as creativity, expressiveness and exploration. In this talk, I briefly present a variety of interaction techniques that I have developed, and I then describe a new survey metric, the Creativity Support Index (CSI), that we have developed to help researchers and designers evaluate the level of creativity support provided by these types of systems, tools or interfaces. I will discuss what has been learned during the process of creating this survey and its usage in various studies. I will then briefly present some current results using biometric tools to measure aspects of creativity. I present this work within the context of my longer term goal to develop a suite of tools that provide both stronger analytical power and a general framework for evaluating computational support for creative activities, engagement and aesthetic experience.