16 April 2025
In an ever-changing world, creativity plays a key role in adapting to change. At work, at school or in our everyday lives, creativity allows us to find innovative and effective solutions to complex challenges by exploring new avenues. Faced with this reality, a key question arises: what triggers our creativity? What are the conditions that enable us to reach the long-awaited moment when we can cry out, “Eureka!” This is the question on which Annemarie Lesage, new professor in the UX Design Department, has been focusing her research.
The Creative Process to Success
At the root of the creative process lies a stimulating environment that exerts positive pressure to come up with ideas—i.e. not too much pressure, otherwise it can hinder creativity. A stimulating environment will require low mental workload and will set its users to be open to unexpected opportunities. Mindset plays a key role here: being receptive and engaged maximizes the chances of coming up with innovative ideas.
Annemarie Lesage studies various tools and methods to support participants in Design thinking sessions. These sessions are not exclusive to design experts, but are for all members of product and service teams wishing to stimulate their creativity. And how can we prolong this creative state and make the most out of it? The tools include immersive spaces, sketches, and more playful media such as LEGO blocks. These help actualize ideas and structure thinking in a process of continuous experimentation.
As a UX designer, Annemarie Lesage focuses in the research, design and prototyping phase that precedes the development of a project by engineers. This phase is crucial, as it allows for exploring different solutions and gradually eliminate those that don’t work. Annemarie has hosted several co-creation workshops involving multidisciplinary teams to generate new ideas and design innovative solutions to various issues facing society. One theme that is especially close to her heart is home care for the elderly, a challenge that calls for creative approaches tailored to their specific needs.
Creativity to Alleviate Anxiety
In addition to her more standard academic research, Annemarie Lesage would like to test participatory design with large groups, integrating research-creation methodology. In this approach, new knowledge is explored through artistic and playful activities, fostering a more relaxed state of mind, more receptive to creativity. By freeing individuals from the pressure of results, this approach allows them to experiment and explore new ideas.
Putting People First
As Annemarie Lesage often says, “Design must adapt to people, not the other way around.” This philosophy will be her guide when teaching students enrolled in the new bachelor’s degree in UX Design. By emphasizing the importance of creativity and innovation, she hopes to train a new generation of designers responding to contemporary challenges by proposing solutions focused on user needs.
