The Creativity 4.0 framework: outlining the influences on creativity in the digital era

We are in the middle of a digital transformation in which emerging digital technologies are completely reshaping the way in which people learn, work, behave and socialise. Individuals and the whole of society are living in an onlife reality, which represents a hyperconnected experience that is modelling our digital culture and impacting the social, behavioural and cognitive development, especially for the generation that is growing up with digital habits (smartphones, tablets, video games, etc.). In this transformation, creativity has been recognised as one of the most distinctive human skills, especially in the necessary collaboration between human and machine. A fundamental issue for design that arises from this context concern the impacts of the human and technological co-evolution on the creative process. The objective of this paper is to present the Creativity 4.0 framework, its structure and building process. The framework highlights the most crucial factors of creativity that support the different step of the design process and support the identification of the enabling and inhibiting condition for creativity brought by the digital transition.