Software Tools, Creative Thinking, and Craft Workflows

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This week I’m returning to a topic I briefly touched on in the first issue of the newsletter: how software tools (applications) shape our thinking. Don Norman, a founder of the user-centered design movement, cautions us that the tools and technologies we use are not passive agents:

“Technology is not neutral. Each technology has properties—affordances—that make it easier to do some activities, harder to do others: The easier ones get done, the harder ones neglected. Each has constraints, preconditions, and side effects that impose requirements and changes on the things with which it interacts, be they other technology, people, or human society at large. Finally, each technology poses a mind-set, a way of thinking about it and the activities to which it is relevant, a mind-set that soon pervades those touched by it, often unwittingly, often willingly.” (Things That Make Us Smart)

Our lives are mediated by our technologies—nearly everything we do in nearly every aspect of our lives involves the use of technology, whether it’s a simple tool like a pencil or a complex tool like a smartphone. We are becoming aware of how certain technologies like the smartphone, and certain kinds of applications, like social media, impact our personal lives, our relationships, our politics, and our culture. But there’s little discussion about how “general purpose” software tools, such as word processing and spreadsheet applications, influence our thinking and work.

If applications do in fact shape our thinking, then the fact so many of us spend so much time working with the same tools means those tools have a broad cultural impact. Many of these applications are part of “suites” that contain a set of related, linked applications. Suites further amplify the impact of the design models that drive the user experience. We need to understand how these dominant design models and applications work and determine whether they are homogenizing our patterns of thought.

I want to explore the ways software tools shape our creative thinking and work. Every application expresses an underlying mental model. What are those models? How do they nurture our creative thinking, and how do they constrain it? For example, to what extent do word processing applications lead us toward hierarchical, linear thinking and specific types of writing? How does the experience of drawing in a screen oriented pixel-based drawing application, such as Corel Painter, differ from the experience in an equation-based (vector) tool such as Adobe Illustrator? The standardization of processes, workflows, and outputs is a desired outcome for optimizing certain kinds of work and content, especially in large organizations, but the resulting conformity is likely detrimental to the creativity of individuals, teams, and organizations.

A new class of multi-function tools (like Notion, Coda, ClickUp, Airbase, and SmartSheet to name just a few examples) are breaking the stranglehold the canonical “office” applications (the word processor, spreadsheet, presentation application, mail/calendar application, and database) have had on knowledge work and creativity since the introduction of the first version of Microsoft Office in the late 1990s. These tools promise fresh ways of creating, organizing, managing, and sharing information, but what are they at heart? The evolution of the canonical approaches to knowledge work and creativity, or something truly new?

While exploring these questions will require occasional forays into disciplines such as human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, and user interface design, my primary focus is practical applications for creative thinking, both in knowledge work and the creative arts. I will measure the success of the series on whether you’ve found it stimulating and useful.

This is an ambitious undertaking that I’ll deliver in installments over the next several weeks. I’m not sure where it will lead, but that’s the fun of it!

Craft Workflows

You’ve probably heard the term “workflow.” The most common understanding of workflow is the path a piece of work follows from inception to completion. Discussions about workflow are usually business and systems related, and often focused on optimizing efficiency. But there’s another use of the term workflow that’s gaining traction—it’s focused on describing the processes and tools knowledge workers and creatives use to

  • capture and organize information and ideas (“raw materials”);

  • annotate and enrich captured raw materials;

  • use their raw materials to create building blocks for use in their intended work products;

  • write, compose, create their work products; and

  • distribute their final work products.

These workflows are not standardized, they are highly personal ways of approaching knowledge and creative work. I call them “craft” workflows.

Standardized workflows emphasize conformity; craft workflows emphasize individuality. The creator’s choice of tools is tightly interwoven with their creative vision, work style, and skill set. Standardized tools lean into providing end-to-end solutions—it’s a key element of their value proposition. Craft tools are modular: they address one specific step in the creative process.

Often, creators use modular tools because they remove the friction that’s introduced in an “overly bossy” application: unintended auto formatting or spell correction, for example, that overrides the creator’s intent. Modular applications also help the creator see their work through a different lens. Looking at a photo in different image editing applications enables a photographer to explore other ways of adjusting key elements of the photo such as white balance, exposure, contrast, color vibrancy and saturation, as well as new filters and effects.

I will return to workflows and modular software in another post. This introduction to craft workflows is a teaser—a way of encouraging you to think about your workflows, the applications you use, and how your tools align with your thinking and working styles.

Relevant and Recommended

For those of you who are interested in learning more about writing workflows, I recommend Writing Workflows: Beyond Word Processing by Tim Lockridge and Derek Van Ittersum. I am indebted to them for their thoughtful research on writers, workflows, and tools.

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Wrangling Words: Microsoft Word and Creative Thinking

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The Room Where It Happens