Creativity Support Tools for Sustainability: from divergent to convergent thinking

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Creativity support tool for sustainability: an LLM-Assisted Creative Process

Publication . Rodrigues, Ana Isabel Mendonça; Campos, Pedro Filipe Pereira; Cabral, Diogo Nuno Crespo Ribeiro

Promoting new ideas is fundamental and promising for fostering innovation in various sectors. Creativity is the fundamental basis of innovation, serving as a springboard for the development of new and useful ideas in their application context, driving innovation in various spheres of society, from organizational processes to cultural transformations. Driven by the impact and evolution of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the rise of the creative process through technology, this doctoral thesis focuses on user experience (UX) during the creative process through the development of a creativity support tool - System Approach to Idea Evaluation and Selection of Ecosystem (SAIESE) - based on a Large Language Model (LLM). The central question of this thesis is to analyze which functionalities can be implemented in creativity support tools, with the aim of increasing support for the creative process (i.e., generation, evaluation, and selection of ideas) and, consequently, improving the creative experience during the resolution of sustainable tasks or problems. In this context, the creative process was guided by three sustainability metrics (i.e., environmental impact, economic benefits, and social effects), ensuring that creativity and the process were directed to the application context of this research. The methodology adopted combines a hybrid research approach (qualitative and quantitative data) and a systematic literature review (2012-2025), which established the theoretical basis for the practical development of the prototype. The prototypes developed were accompanied by empirical validations guided by the research questions initially defined and by some research hypotheses. After extensive evaluations, SAIESE proved to be a successful example of a creativity support tool based on a large-scale language model, providing efficient and effective support throughout the creative process. The research concludes with the development of a conceptual approach that synthesizes the different dimensions of the research. We present the theoretical framework (Divergent Convergent Thinking Framework (DCTF)) that represents the spatialization of the creative process through the Ideas Space and Solution Space present in the Double Diamond Model. Next, we revisit the classic principles of CSTs in light of contemporary LLM-based technologies. Finally, we explore the dynamics of control, transparency, and trust in human-AI collaboration, particularly in the context of convergent thinking and AI-assisted decision making. In conclusion, this thesis proposes a new creativity support tool that combines human cognitive processes with the capabilities of an LLM to inspire future researchers, such as designers, who want to develop tools tailored to application contexts.

2026-02-20Tese de doutoramento

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Palavras-chave

, Exact sciences ,Exact sciences/Computer and information sciences

Entidade financiadora

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.

Número da atribuição

2021.06734.BD