Last wednesday 19th October researcher Peter van Waart and Roland Pastoor organised the workshop Creative Research Tools at the Eindhoven University of Technology. This workshop was part of Desire’11, the second international conference on creativity and innovation. This years theme was theory and practice of creative processes in design. Creative Research Tools are very fitting for this theme as they are a new method of research based on tried and proven techniques.

In short Creative Research Tools are pieces of software that collect rich, authentic data from a variety of platforms, such as the internet, sensors and interactive installaties, to find 3 I’s. These 3 I’s are Information, Insights and Inspiration which form the three stages of the tools. The information stage revolves around gathering relevant, rich, authentic data: datamining in traditional research. The collected data starts the second stage aimed at uncovering insights. This is done by pre-determined requirements and filters or by a researcher. The final stage is aimed at inspiring designers with the results. For this the rich insights are visualised communicated in a way that stimulate new connections in the mind of designers.

The workshop called Creative Research Tools: Automated collection of rich information for designers received a very nice turn-out from various countries. The aim of the workshop, which lasted the entire day, was to further develop Creative Research Tools as a research method inside the landscape of Design Research. The program consisted out of a set of presentations, of which the first two came from the organisers themselves. These presentations focused on introducing Creative Research Tools to the attendees. On forehand people interested were called upon to register for one of the presentation slots available. This resulted in a wide variety of presentations, ranging from concrete, developed CR-tools to background information about Design Research, crowdsourcing and others. Besides the presentations the workshop focussed on discussions around the subject. During these discussions some interesting questions where raised about the what, how and why of Creative Research Tools.

A full overview of the questions and discussion can be found at the open LinkedIn group Creative Research Tools. In the future these questions will be further explored and answered where possible by present and future contributers on the theme. Furthermore, these questions will serve as guidance for future workshops and presentations about Creative Research Tools.

Are you interested in learning more about Creative Research Tools? Visit the LinkedIn group Creative Research Tools or contact Roland Pastoor

Here are some pictures to give you an impression: