Expressive Creative Overview System (ECHO): a Creativity Support Tool

Abstract

A creativity support tool called the Expressive Creative Overview (ECHO) system has been developed in this thesis. It has two main functionalities; one which supports artists to organize their creative processes and the other provides feedback from their fans. While it is not aimed at improving creativity, the system’s goal is to support the creative process. In technical terms, this happens by creating musical version and enabling artists to get reviews on musical versions they post. A focus group, in addition to the artists input, assisted in defining user requirements. Design Science and Shneiderman’s principles for creativity support tools provided valuable frameworks for research into the topics of creative supports tools and implementing a web-based system as an artifact. Final evaluation of the ECHO system showed that both usability and learnability reached satisfactory user scores. Comments from experts showed an interest for such creative tools that could be fine-tuned according to the artists needs.