Framing Creativity: User-driven Innovation in Changing Contexts

This article outlines a way of understanding and modelling how it is possible to design for creative processes. The processes in question involve user-driven didactic design in a Danish project for developing e-learning designs to be used at small and medium sized enterprises (the ELYK-project). After briefly discussing the concepts of creativity and innovation, the article outlines three levels of analysis. On a meta-level, a new model of quadruple helix innovation is introduced, providing a framework for interrelations between enterprise, government, knowledge institutions, and users (learners). On a meso-level, a four-field model is introduced. It is an operational model for user involvement in creativity and innovation processes, depicting and demarcating the changing roles of users and developers at different stages of the design process. On a micro-level, the design practise of running workshops as “communities of ideas” is discussed. Some examples of the practical application of the model are discussed. It is concluded that creativity and innovation are the outcomes of multidisciplinary collaboration where different rationalities and competences become articulated.