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There are many things you might create using digital creativity approaches and tools, which we're using the term 'output' to cover. On this page, we take a look at some examples of outputs, types of digital creativity outputs, and how people choose digital outputs.
On this page, we look at examples of many different kinds of outputs that you might make using digital creativity tools and methods. You might be feeling like there's too many options to choose from or be struggling to decide which would work best for your project. The best starting point is to think about why you want to make something and who is the target audience.
What are you trying to achieve by making something? Defining why you are planning on making something using digital creativity allows you to plan what to make and what it should include. You can't make anything without knowing who it is for and what you are trying to communicate with it!
If you're making something for public engagement, so you're trying to communicate your work or research to a public audience, then you will want to think about which types of outputs might help you to communicate complex ideas to an audience who may not know anything about the field. This will differ depending on the type of information you want to communciate: your subject might suit a simple game or interactive story if it contains a narrative, but if you have a lot of data and results to share, it might be easier to use data visualisation to create an infographic or eye-cataching poster.
You also need to think about how people are going to access your output once you share it. Will it be at a physical event or will they use in online? Podcasts are perfect if you want people to engage with something online in their own time, but they aren't really suitable if you're going to have a stand at an physical event and want people to use your output at the stand (no one wants to sit and listen to your podcast whilst you watch them).
If you don't know yet how you will share it, this is a good time to think about that. You might want to create something versatile that can be used in different contexts, or have multiple simple outputs rather than one complicated one.
The target audience for your digital creativity output might be clearly defined from the purpose of it, for example if you are making a podcast to communicate to a specific audience (like if you were making a podcast aimed at secondary school teachers to inform them about a particular subject area). However, you might have a broader audience or no real idea of the audience at all, so it can be useful to take a bit of time to think about this.
As part of this process, take a look at our designing for users page, which explores how you design with your audience in mind using universal design and UX (user experience) techniques such as developing personas to define potential audience groups in a more nuanced way.
Here are some suggested questions to help you think more deeply about your audience:
Podcasts are a type of audio media that can be freely streamed on the internet for people to listen to. They can take any format you like, and can sometimes have an accompanying video. The audio however is the key part of this. It's intended for people to listen to while doing other activities or as an alternative format to another output.
Here's a few examples of how a podcast could be used:
Whilst "digital" creativity might often seem focused on digital content (and maybe physical devices and hardware, like screens or VR headsets), one area of digital creativity is creating digital artefacts that can then be turned into physical items. This might range from areas like 3D printing, digital cutting, and machine embroidery to using more traditional 2D printing to create posters, postcards, and more. These outputs might sit alongside digital ones, or they might be the final creation after lots of digital work.
If you don't already have the equipment needed to turn something digital into something physical, you might need to see if you can get access to relevant equipment. Sometimes there are spaces called things like makerspaces that have a range of equipment for making and this often includes equipment for turning digital into physical like 3D printers and digital cutters.
At the University of York, there is YorCreate, a makerspace based in the Library and open to all University students and staff.
Lots of things that people make have some kind of digital creation first. For example, this could be a digital design or drawing as a plan or to use as a pitch about the item in question or a digital model that is then created physically. You might use a touchscreen to draw out something you're going to make or use a spreadsheet or other tool to create patterns for cross-stitch or knitting.
In terms of using digital technology to turn something digital into something physical, there are lots of things out there now, like regular inkjet and laser printers, 3D printers, digital cutters, and more specialised machines designed for specific purposes.
So, what kinds of digital things can be made physical?
You may have other examples too - there's lots of digital things you can make some kind of physical thing from!
Printing on paper might not seem like the most exciting option for a digital creativity project, but there are lots of useful and effective ways you can use printed material. For example, you might print off augmented reality (AR) trigger images or QR codes to stick up around a physical environment, or create a poster about the process of creating your digital creativity project.
When chosen purposefully (rather than just printing things on paper for the sake of it), printing can supplement digital outputs or give you a new way of getting people to engage with your digital creativity project.
To explore the digital creativity potential of using YorCreate, see this blog post from Archaeology Data Service about when their Curatorial And Technical Staff came to find out what 3D printing could do for digital preservation:
Videos can take many forms, from filming someone talking to creating an animated video using moving cartoons or text. These can be versatile outputs for digital creativity as you can combine different styles and tones to suit your audience and how the video will be watched. For example, you might make a short video for social media or a longer video to show on a big screen at an event.
Animated videos can vary in complexity and length, meaning that they are great for communicating things to various audiences. These videos we've made on what is generative AI? and what is reference management? show how you can use a simple tool like PowerPoint to create videos to explain concepts to a general audience.
You can also use videos in a more "documentary" style to show behind the scenes information about a project. For example, this demonstration of the Epsilon Zero gaming console created by University of York students shows how you might use video to showcase a piece of work, rather than as the only output.
Combining text and images can be in either printed form, like a poster or leaflet, or digital form, like an graphic. Both types allow you to get creative with how you communicate your messages and they might be your entire output (for example, a poster about your project for a conference) or just part of your overall set of outputs (for example, if you created a graphic to tell people about a game you'd created, or made a leaftet about an immersive trail people could do). For inspiration, here's a campus trail map created for Digital Creativity Week 2023 and below is an example of a postcard that can be given out at a physical event:
Whilst digital creativity posters and graphics might be similar to making an academic poster or infographic, it is worth thinking carefully about your audience and purpose. Typically, academic materials contain larger amounts of text and information, whereas if you are creating a poster to be eye-catching or for a general audience, you might want to focus on short, clear content. Regardless our resources on academic posters and image creation will help you to design these types of materials, even if your content might be different:
One thing to consider is how people are going to access and enjoy your creation. While the dream may be to have a full exhibition of your work, you may wish to consider a simpler option to make your creations available online. This way, you can see how people respond to your creation, and you could even use a form to collect feedback.
It's worth considering a few options for accessing your content. For example, if you've developed an experience for a VR headset, what about people who don't have access to the necessary hardware? Could you instead embed some of your creation, or 3D models in a simple web-viewer on a website?
Google Sites is a tool as part of Google Workspace, where you can easily set up a simple website without any code. These sites let you embed a range of different media including YouTube Videos, images and audio files. The embed feature also allows you to embed 360 images and 3D models, with the help of some other third party tools.
Social Media can be a handy platform to start some public engagement, and share the news of your work. Depending on the format of your creation, you may not be able to share the original artefact but you could share photos or videos of it in action. Some social media will allow you to include links to more detailed information.
You could make use of some image or video editing tools to create a collage, or set of images showcasing some of your work. Some popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok are designed for posts that Centre around image or video media. This can help to heighten interest in your work.
Digital Creativity Week was an event run by Library, Archives and Learning Services at the University of York as a chance for students to come together to learn and develop digital skills and explore research data and library and archive material. The week has been run four times and you can find out more on the Digital Creativity Week site.
Outputs from each Digital Creativity Week varied a lot, depending on the topics and technologies explored. Each week ended with an exhibition of outputs in a physical space, meaning that these spaces also had an impact upon which outputs were chosen. Photos on the Digital Creativity Week site will give you a sense of the variety and the ways the outputs reflected the space available and source material used.
The Digital Creativity practical guide has been written using our knowledge of existing projects, and examples of great work we've seen. If you have been working on your own project, we'd love to hear from you by sharing a case study of what you've done. By sharing information about work you've undertaken, we can use them to ensure these guides encompass all different types of projects.
If you'd like to chat to us about a project you're working on, you can also email us via lib-creativitylab@york.ac.uk
