On the Role of Reflection and Digital Tool Design for Creative Practitioners

This position paper suggests that Creativity Support Tools (CSTs) could be designed for reflection to foster self-learning in creative user experiences. The authors suggest that a state where people continually apply reflection and conscious processing is likely conducive to supporting creative practitioners use of and self-learning of digital tools. This contrasts theories that encourage passive interaction which forgoes self-awareness cf. flow theory. To this end, two case studies from the first author’s PhD research are introduced: i) a questionnaire to differentiate between creative user experiences with more or less moments of reflection, and ii) a summary of the iterative design of a block-based CST to encourage moments of reflection in people’s generative music composition with AI. This research is then discussed in the context of the workshop themes.