Productivity and Creative Experiences
Productivity is another spectrum that can coincide with other interactivity spectrums. Creative experiences allow a user/creator/participant to make/do/share something themselves. Some experiences can be used more productively than others (as opposed to merely entertainment), and productivity is traditionally of more concern in business products than entertainment products, but being creative and producing something are typically more interesting, entertaining, and fulfilling experience-even in leisure. Creation tools are terribly important components for creating meaningful, compelling, and useful experiences. Creative products and experiences require that others participate by creating or manipulating instead of merely watching and consuming.
Co-creative (a term coined by Abbe Don) technologies are those that offer assistance in the creation process. People are naturally creative and are almost always more interested in experiences that allow them to create instead of merely participate. While many situations can create anxiety if people are not accustomed to performing with the tools or techniques, if this anxiety can be lessened, through the careful design of the experience or offered assistance, people express their creativity. This could take the form of recommendations, guidelines, advice, or actually performing operations for users.
Another attribute of these experiences is the capability of adding content or tools to a predefined set, resulting in a "living" product, toolset, or database. Few products are designed to grow or become more valuable over time with participation from the audience. Yet, products that help users structure their experiences and share their knowledge can only become more valuable than those which do not.
Copyright 1994 Nathan Shedroff
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