Boosting creativity with interactive technology

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg show that interactive technology generates new ways of seeing, showing and creating. The new technology boosts creativity.

Jonas Ivarsson, Docent (Reader) at the Department of Education, Communication and Learning at the University of Gothenburg, has used students of architecture to study how new tools affect the specific abilities students develop in school. Within the research project Studying learning and representational technologies in design, supported by the Swedish Research Council, Ivarsson observed and video documented the students' progress. He analysed their speech, gestures and tools, as well as the many objects they used.

'The results of their work are in many ways similar to those of previous generations, but the work process has changed significantly,' says Ivarsson.

New design process

Modern computer technology makes it possible to test new design ideas with a very high level of visual realism.

'It has changed the entire design process and therefore the very nature of the architect's work. Now there is more time for discussion and for additional cycles in the design process,' says Ivarsson.

According to the students' teachers, the decrease in the time required to produce a drawing has had another effect as well: the students do not need to put the same effort into planning a drawing as they used to. In the past, they had to do a lot of preparatory paper and pencil work to for example choose the right perspective.