Software Design as Creative Practice: Lessons and Approaches from Design and Innovation Research

Gilbert Cockton, Emeritus Professor of Design (Northumbria University) and Computer Science (University of Sunderland) 

For the UK government, creative industries “have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property.” Software design can meet all these criteria, and thus IT, software & computer services are grouped together in UK economic statistics as a creative industry, rather than just within engineering or scientific sectors. In a January 2025 report for the UK House of Lords, together they accounted for 39.6% of creative industries’ Gross Value Added and 42.6% of their jobs.

 

Almost 60 years ago, NATO Software Engineering Conferences in 1968 and 1969 were attended by international experts on computer software who agreed on defining best practices for software grounded in an idealised model of engineering. Researchers in creative design were already abandoning prescriptive methods and processes, but software engineering moved in the other direction. Structured Methods were tried for a few decades and typically wastefully failed. Agile practices responded to the ineffectiveness of ‘big upfront’ analysis and specification within generic prescribed processes. However, agile pioneers were hardly better informed than software engineering visionaries about the evidenced realities of creative practice. Within iterations, agile practices can be as prescribed as structured methods.

While software engineering pioneers imagined engineering practices, agile approaches blend imagined creative and engineering practices. There is no need to imagine. We have over half a century of empirical research on creative practices, with replicated insights across a range of studio cultures and industrial innovation contexts. These should provide the foundations for innovative software development. They are rooted in centuries of effective studio practices in education, commercial agencies, and corporate innovation.

 

In this talk I present eight critical creative practices from the research literature, complemented and augmented through collaborations with colleagues, project teams, and students. These are made concrete through approaches that have been used effectively in a variety of project, professional, and educational contexts. Specifically, I present innovative approaches to designing for purpose as a concrete and demonstrably effective response to the Agile Manifesto’s “highest priority … to satisfy the customer … through valuable software”. A worth focus for design purpose operationalises what will be valued. Such innovative approaches become increasingly appropriate as software design must innovate and not simply be implemented. Conversely, there is routine work in IT, software & computer services, and this is amenable to structured closely managed prescribed processes. However, structured processes cannot be scaled in response to increasing demands on software design teams for imagination, judgement, and generosity. Novel practices are essential for all truly novel worth delivery. Such practices do not lack foundations but are these very antithetical to tightly prescribed design and development work.