Creative User - investigating the new market for art - has a focus on the public/audience as a Creative User - someone who combines creativity with consumption.

The concept of a Creative User is at the heart of development in interactive digital art, in which the user engages in processes of interaction and creation.

This mode of participation in art is part of a bigger trend in society towards active participatory recreation, and reflects increasing social and cultural use of digital technologies. We are shifting from the consumption of goods to the consumption of experiences.

The question of how we create and interact is becoming a key aspect of current socio-cultural development. The development of activities which require the public actively to express their creativity using digital methods promotes experiential consuming, as well as wider public understanding of human/digital communications.

Artistic and cultural practice which explores the use of digital tools, alongside ideas of liveness and performance, is bringing about new forms of richer human interaction, experience and expression.

At the centre of this practice is a focus on the user interface and the challenge of involving the public in creative and participatory processes. If one considers the potential cumulative benefit of widespread participation in creative activity, one locates a fruitful arena for the study of user interaction within interactive digital art.

Art can be described as a process of communication within a medium. But, by adding interactivity to art, you change the flow of that process where, originally it was asymmetrical, it now becomes symmetrical. At the same time, the role of the user or consumer fundamentally changes, setting in motion a dynamic loop between the user and the end product. This concept is of central importance to all interaction designers.

Human creativity is developed through particular types of thinking that are cultivated at the level of the individual, community and in society. For creativity to flourish, it requires a nurturing and open environment of diverse stimuli. Its expression is supported by an atmosphere which enables the individual to open up, take risks and deviate from the known and understood path - to dare to discover. Certain qualities of confidence are required and are key to the expression of creativity within the self and in society.

Artists and developers do not always reach the potentials of their concepts for creative user participation and information and instruction to encourage creative use is not always provided. Many artists resist the use of proper education programmes around their work, yet information and instruction on new experiences and how to create is a public requirement and subject to debate, among artists.

Overall Theme

Creative User research investigates key issues related to the theme of responseABILITY:

Does interactive digital art respond to the creative interests of the public user?
Does the public user respond to the creative potentials of interactive digital art?

Public participation in the production and consumption of digital learning and leisure environments gives birth to the concept of a creative user - someone who combines creativity with consumption. This market has huge potential for the expression and exploitation of public creativity. This 21st century social agenda requires the user, the product and the market to have responseABILITY.

As the digital world expands into the entertainment and learning world, the need for expertise in user participation processes and techniques becomes increasingly necessary for the development of popular services. The provision of information on the motivations, reactions and observations of the users who participate is an essential component of new product and market development.

The integration of user research and documentation processes into the design and development of experiences supports overall improvements in user performance, confidence and knowledge development.

Research Areas

• Role of the User: what is the role of the user and what its key characteristics?
• Interface and Interaction: what types of interaction experiences are on offer?
• Desire and Reward: what are the centres of user interest?
• Information and Communication: what are the approaches and requirements?

Hypothesis

Taking on the role of a Creative User expands the creative, intellectual, practical and social skills of the public and leads to an increase and overall improvement in performance, confidence and knowledge and thereby quality of life.

Aims

• Exploring and documenting the nature of user participation in case studies which illustrate a diversity of innovative approaches to user creation and interaction within a focus on physical interactions with digital technologies
• Designing user research methodologies which support the collection of rich data on new types of audience engagement and participation experiences
• Collecting user feedback on the experiences of touching, texting, sensing, mapping and wearing linked to the use of mobile and sensing technologies in public spaces
• Examining the changing concepts of role, use, impact and reward defined by such forms in relation to the wider critical and cultural context of public creativity and consumption
• Identifying the most influential factors and variables associated with the role of a creative user within different types of interface and interaction designs and the user desires and rewards
• Defining strategies for information and communication which support improvements in the user experience and design of open education/ cooperative learning methods
• Building a platform of documentation, analysis and knowledge on the creative user for discussion between academics, practitioners, funders, educationalists and promoters