How making Design Fiction?

Using the future scope

Morning – First, participants select future scenarios from a curated instance database. Then, they are asked to map these scenarios against a futures cone (to determine the relative probability or improbability of that future). In the afternoon – participants must imagine a future need borne of the hypothetical instances they selected and designing a product that fill that need (from the combination of 3D printed shapes). In the final step, the product becomes ‘real’, with the creation of a product description page for a fake e-commerce platform.

1 Day Workshop

1

Instances - 90'

Participants choose a few scenarios from an instance database of references to evolving research, emerging situations, and possible futures. These references are meant to serve as provocations rather than boundaries.
2

Mapping scenarios

Participants imagine different futures trajectories, using 4 different arcs: Grow (a scenario where things continue building as they currently do), Degrowth (where things fail leading to a drastically different world), Transform (where some unexpected event changes the world in an unforeseeable way)
3

Imagine a future need

Participants select one of this new scenario. Then, they imagine a a future need borne of it. They can do it using different lenses: technological, social, political, ecological and economic (TBD). From this need and using the 3D printed objects, they create a product filling this need.
4

Prototype

In order to make the scenario look ‘real’, participants design static mockups and fake props. They create a fake product description, including pricing and options.

Design Fiction Case

Example of use

From instance to product concept, discover each step of a design fiction process with a concrete exemple

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Canvases

Download canvases to empower workshop participants with a design fiction process approach

DownloadCase canvases

Smart Future product presentation slide deck

In order to facilitate the workshop results' presentation, we use a slide deck. Smart Future products' description pages can be created in a second time.

DownloadCase final page

Smart Future is a collaborative design education project. If you have any tools to suggest, please contact us to contribute

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