In preparation for the Interaction’16 conference in Helsinki, I’ll start posting some of what I thought were the highlights of Interaction’15. Here is the first one with Dan Saffer:
When we think about creativity, it’s usually the creativity of artists and musicians, novelists and poets. That is, people who create to express. But there’s another kind of creativity: that of designers and craftsmen, scientists and engineers. Those who create to solve problems or to invent. While these two modes of creativity aren’t exclusive, this second type of creativity, what I’m calling Practical Creativity, is defined by constraints that aren’t of one’s own making and are usually solved by putting together disparate pieces into a new, unique whole. This talk focuses on what you can do to increase your practical creativity through the deliberate practice of finding and gathering those pieces and the methods for fitting them together. We look at everyday practices and methods to boost creativity, as well as how to overcome the (infinite) number of things that seem to inhibit creativity.
Since 1995, Dan Saffer has designed everything from websites to appliances to robots. He feels that design isn’t only about problem solving, but about creating a better, more humane, future. Dan’s insightful, thoughtful approach to design has been captured in the three books he’s written—Designing for Interaction, Designing Gestural Interfaces, and Designing Devices—which are required reading for any student of interaction design. His latest book, Microinteractions, was published in 2013 to great acclaim. Dan is currently Creative Director, New Products at Jawbone, where he works on next-generation wearables and consumer electronics
From Interaction15
