What’s Functional Creativity? (There’s a good example of it in your pocket)
There’s an interesting creative challenge in making things more usable — even fun — for people. I’ve a massive appreciation for “functional creativity” which I define as employing creative thinking to a physical or digital product or service so that it works better.
Functional creative ideas need not be dry, boring, mechanical. They can bring users a world of delight. A prime example of functional creativity IMHO is the iPhone and its ecosystem of hardware and software — it changed how we interact with and what we expect from phones, forever.
Some other examples of cool functional creativity:
- How do we stop illegal logging?
- Functional creative solution: Inject code that disables trucks when they enter a protected forest zone. Illegal logging, stopped in its tracks as it were. (http://codeofconscience.org )
- How do we make sleep-inducing sales presentations more engaging?
- Functional creative solution: Let your audience interact with your preso with their phones (they probably are on their phones anyway). (https://create.withgoogle.com/tools/audience-connect & https://www.mentimeter.com/)
- How do we stop smart speakers from listening to us (without muting it?)
- Functional creative solution: Employ a “parasitical” device that augments the sounds the smart speaker is listening to. (https://bjoernkarmann.dk/project_alias)
