How Are Measures of Usability and Creativity Support Correlated?

Creativity support tools (CSTs) are designed to support exploration, discovery, and innovation. However, we do not know to what extent the support for these activities correlate with the ease of use and ability to work rapidly, effectively, and with fewer errors. To examine the relationship between the concepts usability and creativity support, we present a preliminary study on what creative professionals (n=110) from various disciplines report to be the most important digital tools in their work (Word, Teams, Excel, Visual Studio Code, Photoshop). We deployed two well-established instruments, System Usability Scale and the Creativity Support Index. We found a clear positive correlation between the usability and creativity support, but it tended to vary depending on the type of digital tool. We discuss the potential causes of this correlation, and whether better usability in a tool might also result in better capabilities for supporting creative tasks.