A challenge for human-computer interaction researchers and user interface designers is to construct information technologies that support creativity. This ambitious goal can be attained by building on an adequate understanding of creative processes. This paper offers a four-phase framework for creativity that might assist designers in providing effective tools for users:- Collect: learn from previous works stored in digital libraries, the web, etc.- Relate: consult with peers and mentors at early, middle and late stages- Create: explore, compose, and evaluate possible solutions- Donate: disseminate the results and contribute to the digital libraries Within this integrated framework, this paper proposes eight activities that require humancomputer interaction research and advanced user interface design. A scenario about an architect illustrates the process of creative work within such an environment.

The creative outcome of a design process hinges on whether or not designers are able to find important aspects of a given problem and thereby invent design issues or requirements during the process. How do they do this? What becomes the impetus for the invention of important issues or requirements? Socalled "unexpected discoveries", the acts of attending to visuo-spatial features in sketches which were not intended when they were drawn, are believed to contribute to it. The purpose of the present research is to verify this hypothesis. Analysing the cognitive processes of a practising architect in a design session, we found that in about a half of his entire design process there was bi-directional causality between unexpected discoveries and the invention of issues or requirements; not only did unexpected discoveries become the driving force for invention, but also the occurrence of invention, in turn, tended to cause new unexpected discoveries. This has pedagogical implications.

In exploring the question of whether a computer program is behaving creatively, it is important to be explicit, and if possible formal, about the criteria that are being applied in making judgements of creativity. We propose a formal (and rather simplified) outline of the relevant attributes of a potentially creative program. Based on this, we posit a number of formal criteria that could be applied to rate the extent to which the program has behaved creatively. A guiding principle is that the question of what computational mechanisms might lead to creative behaviour is open and empirical, and hence we should clearly distinguish between judgements about creative achievements and theoretical proposals about potentially creative mechanisms. The intention is to focus, clarify and make more concrete the debate about creative programs. 1

Computational mechanics, an approach to structural complexity, defines a process’s causal states and gives a procedure for finding them. We show that the causal-state representation—an E-machine—is the minimal one consistent with

to be re-written?]] Abstract Replication or even modelling of consciousness in machines requires some clarifications and refinements of our concept of consciousness. Fortunately, design of, construction of, and interaction with artificial systems can itself assist in this conceptual development. In particular, if we start with the tentative hypothesis that consciousness is a form of information processing, we can build virtual machine architectures which attempt to capture various aspects of consciousness. This activity may in turn nurture the development of our concepts of consciousness in such a way that we can at last understand why consciousness is a form of information processing. This process leads gradual refinement of many of our pre-theoretical concepts of mind, showing how they can be best construed as "architecture-based" concepts.

s guide the writing process, and a writer re-represents some of these as explicit conceptual spaces. Creativity in writing occurs through a mutually promotive cycle of engagement and reflection, both guided by constraint. A session of engaged `knowledge telling' generates written material for consideration. Reflection involves reviewing and interpreting the material as a source for contemplation. Contemplation generates new ideas which are explored and transformed, producing plans and constraints that drive a further period of engaged writing. --- 2 --- This basic creative mechanism supports a variety of writing strategies, depending on the timing and relative emphasis given to reviewing, contemplation, planning and engagement. Writing as design emphasises the writer as a user of tools and a creator of cognitive artefacts. A writer is a thinker in a self-constructed environment which affords, constrains and mediates the writing process. Writing as design emphasises the use of a prim

Complex design problems require more knowledge than any one single person can possess, and the knowledge relevant to a problem is often distributed and controversial. Rather than being a limiting factor, symmetry of ignorance can provide the foundation for social creativity. Bringing different points of view together and trying to create a shared understanding among all stakeholders can lead to new insights, new ideas, and new artifacts. Social creativity can be supported by new media that allow owners of problems to contribute to framing and solving these problems. These new media need to be designed from a meta-design perspective by creating environments in which stakeholders can act as designers and be more than consumers. Keywords conceptual frameworks for creativity and cognition, consumers, designers, impact of new media on design, meta-design, social creativity, symmetry of ignorance Gerhard Fischer 2 KBS Special Issues C&C99 INTRODUCTION______________________________________...

. This paper commences by outlining notions of creativity before examining the role of emergence in creative design. Various process models of emergence are presented; these are based on notions of additive and substitutive variables resulting in additive and substitutive schemas. Frameworks for both representation and process for a computational model of creative design are presented. The representational framework is based on design prototypes whilst the process framework is based on an evolutionary model. The computational model brings both representation and process together. 1. Creativity in Design In order to develop and describe any model of creativity in design we need to have an acceptable conception of design. Design, in one sense, can be conceived of as a purposeful, constrained, decision making, exploration and learning activity. Decision making implies a set of variables, the values of which have to be decided. Search is the common process used in decision making. Explor...

We consider aspects pertinent to evaluating creativity to be input, output and the process by which the output is achieved. These issues

I summarise and attempt to clarify some concepts presented in and arising from Margaret Boden's (1990) descriptive hierarchy of creativity, by formalising the ideas she proposes.