Creative hobbies are a valuable pastime. They not only provide relaxation, but also the opportunity for self-expression and collaboration with like-minded people.
If these hobbies bring along so many benefits, how come, then, that we do not engage in them more often?

This discrepancy between an ideal scenario and the reality of daily life provides an opportunity for design. In a project based on knowledge from leisure crafting, the following assignment has been formulated: “design a product and/or service to encourage people to engage in creative leisure, in order to reach personal goals and improve their subjective well-being.”

To solve this design problem, different aspects of creative leisure were explored through literature review and user research. The resulting insights were translated into themes indicating opportunities for design. The theme of Creative confidence was selected to continue with.

After several rounds of ideation, two concepts emerge. Feedback from creative hobbyists and insights from literature are used to choose one concept: CreativiTijd.

CreativiTijd is a pendulum clock that reminds its users to engage in a creative hobby for fifteen minutes at a time. This reminder comes three times per week in the form of mischievous behaviour, with pendulums swinging chaotically. The user can then put the clock to rest by sliding out the CreativiTijd part of the clock and taking time for their creative hobby. In this way, the pendulum clock makes creative hobbyists more aware of their choices for their spare time.

A final user evaluation with a detailed prototype reveals that it is likely that CreativiTijd achieves its aim of encouraging people to engage more in their creative hobby. Several suggestions for further development are made to increase its chances of success.