Shasha Yu
MFA Design Research and Development, 2020

Project Description:
Creativity is considered to be crucial to solving increasingly complex challenges. A creative growth mindset, in which people believe their creativity can be improved, plays a critical role in creative performance. People with creative growth mindsets are eager to learn the related knowledge, practice skills, are open to critique, and more willing to engage in complex problem solving, which are essential for fostering creativity. However, limited studies focus on how to facilitate a creative growth mindset. This research integrates gameplay with maketools to explore what process could facilitate a creative growth mindset and foster creativity. Three studies have been conducted. Study 1 explored the fixed mindset triggers that inhibit people from developing a creative growth mindset in everyday life. A game prototype that included the fixed mindset triggers was developed and was pilot tested. A new game, Growth, was developed based on the results of Study 1 and the game pilot test. Study 2 examined the effect of game Growth on facilitating creative growth mindset development. The results showed that game Growth had positive effects on increasing people’s creative growth mindset and creative confidence. Study 3 integrated this process into a class to further examine the effect of the process to creative growth mindset development in a real-world setting. The results showed a similar pattern to that in Study 2. These findings suggest that the process that integrates gameplay with maketools has positive effects on facilitating creative growth mindsets and unlocking people’s creative potentials. A game toolkit was designed based on the findings from all the three studies. The game toolkit could be accessible to all people in everyday life and facilitate people’s creative growth mindset development and enhance their creativity in everyday life.

URL: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587417280180723

Committee Members: 
Elizabeth Sanders, Peter Chan, Richard Jagacinski, Scott Swearingen

Keywords:
Design