Enhancing the Creativity Process by Adding Context Awareness in Creativity Support Tools

The existence of creativity support tools establishes creativity as part of the Computer Science research. Therefore, the development of computational methods for the enhancement of creativity is undoubtedly a challenge. In this paper we argue that adding context awareness in creativity support tools will enhance the creativity process. This belief is based on the evaluation of a number of the most popular creativity support tools in relation to the features and characteristics they support. In this review, we examine the characteristics related to the interaction between the user and the creativity support tools in two phases: the ‘preparation’ of creativity process and the ‘ideation’ phase. Through this analysis we observe that the tools in most cases play a passive role. Real time Human-Computer interaction is missing, and therefore the creativity process is not as effective as it could and should be. Finally, we conclude that the addition of context awareness in creativity support tools can enhance the creativity process and innovation.