Creative methods for research and evaluation have been gaining increased focus in recent years. They are something that myself and Dr. Samatha Child have had the opportunity to present on several times this year. Often there is a keen desire to be more creative in approaches to evaluation but this can be limited by capacity, knowledge of tools and methodologies or simply not knowing where to start. Furthermore, the current pandemic has meant that many of these methods need to be adapted for online audiences.

The power of creativity to support research and evaluation is not one that should be underestimated. Creative methods have many benefits to the depth of data that can be elicited. One of their greatest benefits is the ability, as Dawn Mannay so eloquently frames it, to help make ‘the familiar strange’. Using creative methods with adults can, however, often faced with challenges. This is especially true of more complex tasks such as drawing.