In Fall of 2002, I took a very interesting class on creativity support tools with one of my favorite professors: Ben Shneiderman. The course introduced us to several tools that empowers people to be more creative by presenting them with the right medium to find resources (Idea Processors, Thesauri, Brainstorming) , creating maps and collaboration.
I remember Ben’s opening statement was: “I believe with the right tools, we can make more people more creative most of the time!”. I also remember raising my hand, and immediately objecting Ben’s statement stating that I know few people who can never be creative even if they were given the best tools in the world. Ben accepted my objection with his pleasant smile, and told me that it’s my right not to agree. A year later, I went to Ben’s office and told him that I believe his statement was true. I have been using some tools myself that exploited more of my creativity than I ever imagined! FreeMind is one of the tools that I use every day in almost every task, and I am surprised that Microsoft does not include it in their product pipeline yet. Mind Mapping exists in a very modest way in Visio, but it does not come close to other commercial and freeware tools out there (it requires lots of shifting between the mouse and the keyboard, and this is too expensive interaction overhead for me to handle).
Anyways, you may be asking: “What’s the moral of this blog entry?”.. Well, pretty much the bunch of links below to those interested in trying a more creative touch in their daily lives!
User interfaces for creativity support tools (ACM paper)
Workshop on Creativity Support Tools (Free proceedings)
Creativity resources (From the class’ webpage)
- Creativity Web: Resources for Creativity and Innovation
- Software for Creativity & Idea Generation
- Creax home page
- Creax Creativity Links
- Creativity Based Information Resources: Online Bibliography
- Encyclopedia of Creativity (Runco & Pritzker)
- CREATIVITY RESEARCH JOURNAL
Idea Processors, Thesauri, Brainstorming
- dramatica Pro: software products for writers of stories
- Imagination Engineering Software (Clegg & Birch)
- ParaMind: generative brainstorming program
- Basic ParaMind Theory
- Ideas and Knowledge Processing Technologies to Speed Innovation
- IdeaFisher: Creative Brainstorming Software
- TreePad: Award-winning PIM, Database and Word Processor
- Creator Studio: Quickly Create New Ideas and Solve Problems
- Visual Concept: Software to improve your capacity to think
Making Maps
- FreeMind: A freeware Java tool for mind mapping
- Heterarchical Mapping of Information Spaces
- webbrain 2.0
- Topic Maps
- VisiMap – State-of-the-art visual mapping for Microsoft Windows
- Axon Idea Processor: A Visualization Tool for Thinkers
Theories, books, software, webtools
- Innovation Works: Promoting creativity, innovation and invention
- Brainstorming Toolbox
- Innovation Toolbox
- MaxThink
- Inspiration strengthens critical thinking
- CreaTRIZ: Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
- Advanced Practical Thinking Training-DeBono
- Dr Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking Training & Software
- Horn’s Visual Language Book
