By Julie Høncke Keldorff and Susanne Clement Justesen, AAU Communication and Public Affairs.
Photo: Lars Horn, Baghuset. Graphic: Søren Emil Søe Degn, AAU Communication and Public Affairs.

How do time pressure and digital tools affect our creative design processes, and how can we empower people's creativity? These are some of the big questions that Jeanette Falk, Assistant Professor (tenure track), Department of Computer Science investigates in her research. 

She was selected for AAU Excellence – Aalborg University's talent development programme for ambitious early-career researchers with the potential to make a difference.

Human-computer interaction

Jeanette Falk's work is in human-computer interaction where she particularly focuses on creative design processes. She examines how people make decisions about what they design – including how digital tools and time pressure can affect those decisions. 

Thus far, her research has focused on design under time pressure – such as at hackathons where people meet and collaborate intensively across backgrounds. Jeanette Falk has also participated in and organized game jams/events where game developers, artists and other creative people come together to create a game. 

Greater focus on process rather than result

With the rapid emergence of generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, Jeanette Falk asks a critical question: Do we lose anything when decision-making processes become faster, and what do we gain?

"Research on creativity shows that breaks, reflection and creative detours can actually promote innovation," she explains.

Jeanette Falk understands why, for example, students who experience increasing pressure in the education system may be tempted to use AI tools to quickly create finished and polished products. 

But she also asks: When should we encourage people to focus more on the process rather than just producing a perfect end result quickly?

A great honour to be in the programme

At the same time, she points out how the EU AI Act imposes new requirements on the responsible design of generative AI tools, raising even more questions to investigate. Jeanette Falk is thus grateful for the opportunity that the AAU Excellence programme provides:

"It is a great honour to be part of the programme. I am grateful for the opportunity to develop professionally through mentoring, collaboration with talented researchers and further education, such as a summer school stay at the University of Oxford. I hope to use this to strengthen my research and eventually establish my own research group," she says. 

Background

Jeanette Falk, Assistant Professor (tenure track) has a background in Digital Design specializing in interaction design processes and game design. She earned her PhD at Aarhus University and worked as a postdoc at the University of Salzburg in Austria before returning to Denmark.

Facts

Aalborg University's research talent programme AAU Excellence aims to raise the academic qualifications of talented researchers early in their careers enabling them to develop groundbreaking, original research and to give them the best conditions for securing prestigious career grants. "During the spring and autumn, Update presents portraits of the eight participants."

Follow the talented researchers and the many activities in AAU Excellence on LinkedIn.

Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs.