Visionaries in Computer Science have long seen the computer as a tool to augment our intellect. However, while it is relatively straightforward to measure the impact of a tool or technique on task efficiency for well-defined tasks, it is much more difficult to measure computers' impact on higher-level cognitive processes, such as creative processes. In my own research in Human-Computer Interaction, I create novel interaction techniques, but run up against the problem of trying to demonstrate how these tools positively impact higher-level processes such as creativity, expressiveness and exploration. In this talk, I first present a variety of interaction techniques that I have developed, and I then describe a new survey metric, the Creativity Support Index (CSI), that I have developed with my PhD student, Erin Carroll, to help researchers and designers evaluate the level of creativity support provided by various systems, tools or interfaces. I will discuss what has been learned during the process of creating this survey and its usage in three different studies. The Creativity Support Index is one of the very first indices to support any evaluation of a computer system's impact on higher-level cognitive work. My longer term aim is to develop a suite of tools that provide both stronger analytical power, and a fundamental framework for evaluating computational support for creative activities and similarly complex work.

Dr. Celine Latulipe has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo in Canada. She is an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Software and Information Systems in the College of Computing and Informatics at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Latulipe has long been fascinated by two-handed interaction in the real world, and the absence of it in the human-computer interface. She has developed numerous individual and collaborative two-handed interaction techniques and these have blossomed into an exploration of creative expression. Dr. Latulipe works on projects with choreographers, dancers, artists and theatre producers to better understand creative work in practice and how technology may play a role in supporting and evaluating creative work practices. Currently, Dr. Latulipe is working on the Dance.Draw project, funded by an NSF CreativeIT grant.