THE BASICS YOU NEED TO KNOW & UNDERSTAND ABOUT SPECULATIVE DESIGN
“We can not work towards an improvement that we can not imagine” — Elise Boulding
Introduction to Speculative Design
Speculative design is an approach to design that focuses on imagining future scenarios and possibilities. It can be used to explore social, political, technological, and ethical issues, and to generate new ideas and solutions.
Speculative design is not about predicting the future, but about exploring different ways that the future could be. By doing so, it can help us to better understand the present and make better decisions about the future.
The term “speculative design” was popularized by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby as a subsidiary of critical design. The aim is not to present commercially-driven design proposals but to design proposals that identify and debate crucial issues that might happen in the future.
The two popularized the concept in their book, Speculative Everything: Design, Dreaming, and Social Dreaming
“[Speculative design] thrives on imagination and aims to open up new perspectives on what are sometimes called wicked problems, to create spaces for discussion and debate about alternative ways of being, and to inspire and encourage people’s imaginations to flow freely. Design speculations can act as a catalyst for collectively redefining our relationship to reality.”
According to Dunne and Raby, designers shouldn’t just address issues of today, but also take a look into the future and ask, “How can we address future challenges with design?”
Speculative Everything was initially a list they have published a few years ago called A/B, a sort of manifesto, where Dunne & Raby added dimension B of design aspects to the dimension A.
The goal of speculative design is not to provide definite answers, but to generate questions and provoke thought. It is a tool for critical thinking that can be used by individuals, organizations, and society as a whole.
“Speculative Design is a Critical Design practice that comprises or is in relation to a series of similar practices known under the following names: Critical design, design fiction, future design, anti-design, radical design, interrogative design, discursive design, adversarial design, futurescape, design art, etc.” — Mitrović, I. (2015). An Introduction to Speculative Design Practice. (I. Mitrović & M. Golub, Eds.). Department for Visual Communications Design, Arts Academy, University of Split.
At a very basic level, speculative design is about crafting and visualizing possible future experiences and products. It’s about looking into the future and back at the present to understand how things might be connected and how they might affect one another. It’s about being able to see the potential for things to develop, change, or grow over time. At its core, speculative design is about questioning the present and imagining possible futures. It’s about looking at problems from a different perspective and considering new and different solutions to those problems.
This diagram by futurologist Stuart Candy, redrawn by Dunne and Raby, illustrates an approach to the practice and vision of speculative design. Projecting from the present onwards, the diagram breaks the future down into 3 main cones according to the likelihood of their actualization.
1. The Probable is where traditional design exists. It describes what we can predict that probably will happen judging from how the world currently is.
2. The Plausible begins to delve further into the areas of building scenarios and foresight. It describes alternative futures and the possibilities of could be’s and what if’s.
3. The Possible goes beyond, to extreme scenarios of what is scientifically possible. This includes utopias and dystopias, while never crossing into the realm of fantasy or science fiction.
There is a preferred version of the future that lies somewhere in the middle of probable and plausible scenarios. The core of the work that speculative designers do is determining whether or not the future we are moving toward will turn out to be better.
Designers do not have the authority to dictate what is preferred. Because of this, speculative design focuses more on asking questions than it does on defining how things ought to be.
A map of unreality
In his book The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster tells the story of a bored boy named Milo who one day receives a tollbooth in the mail. The tollbooth transports him to a strange land where he has all sorts of adventures. Along the way, he meets a lot of interesting characters, including a creature called the Terrible Trivium.
The Terrible Trivium is a monster that loves nothing more than to ask pointless questions and give tedious explanations. He loves to talk but never says anything useful. In other words, he represents everything that is wrong with academia.
Juster’s book is a satirical take on the education system, and the Terrible Trivium is emblematic of this. He is a map of unreality, leading Milo (and by extension, the reader) down a path of confusion and frustration. He embodies everything that is wrong with pedantry and intellectualism gone too far.
Aesthetics of unreality
Some of the most important aspects of speculative design are its aesthetics. The term “aesthetics” is used in a variety of ways, but for our purposes we can think of it as a set of principles governing the appearance and/or presentation of an object or environment. In speculative design, these aesthetics are often used to create an atmosphere of unease or uneasiness, to make the viewer question what they are seeing and why it looks the way it does.
One common aesthetic used in speculative design is that of “unreality”. This can be achieved through a number of different techniques, such as making an object look out of proportion, using jarring or unexpected colors, or playing with perspective in a way that makes the viewer feel disoriented. By creating something that looks “off” in some way, we are forcing the viewer to question what they are seeing and sparking their imagination as to what could be causing this effect.
Another important aspect of speculative design aesthetics is that of “futurity”. This can be achieved through a number of different techniques as well, such as using clean lines and futuristic materials to create a sense of forward momentum. This aesthetic is often used in conjunction with others to create a overall feeling of unease or tension, as it gives the impression that something is not quite right or that things are not as they should be.
Speculative Design Process
A typical design process goes like this: idea generation, research, ideation, iteration, and testing. But with speculative design, we add two extra steps: exploration and visualization. During the exploration phase, we go a step further and look for inspiration in emerging technologies, cultural shifts, and current events that could affect our project in the future. We then take these explorations and use them as jumping-off points to come up with new design solutions. In the visualization phase, we take our findings and bring them to life through sketches, storyboards, interactive prototypes, and other creative visualizations. We create temporary mock-ups and simulations that bring our ideas to life and help us better understand what they feel like in the real world.
Speculative Design for future world & unreality
Even though speculative design is used to create possible futures, we have to remember to make our visualizations realistic. This means basing them in the present and existing technologies. If a particular feature or design solution is too far removed from reality, it will be incredibly hard to create and implement. For example, if you’re designing a hotel room in the year 2030, you can’t design it to be some futuristic space that uses no technology that exists in the present day. It has to be based in reality. You have to imagine what the room would look like if we were able to create an entirely new hotel experience without any limitations.
Speculative Design Case study
To understand the approach and realm of speculative design, let’s look into a speculative design case study — A masters research project dealing with the design of a learning experience about the speculative future of jobs for the next generation.
In the past, jobs didn’t change much. Jobs such as police officers or teachers have existed our whole life. But in the near future, jobs will change faster.
A report from the World Economic Forum tells us that by one estimate, 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist. The jobs market of 2026 will likely look quite different from today’s career landscape, so the next generation must be focused and prepared for this future career situation.
Imagine future of jobs is a masters research project developed by Wongsathon Choonhavan in collaboration with Daphne Gerodimou. This project focuses on how to educate the next generation to face the unpredictable future jobs situation using imagination and Speculative Design practice.
What holds in future in the design space
There are many different ways to approach speculative design, but one common thread is that it is future-oriented. This means that speculative designers look at current trends and try to imagine where those trends might lead in the future. They ask questions like “What if this technology became widely available?” or “How would society change if this trend became more prevalent?”
This type of thinking can be applied to any area of design, from product design to urban planning. By looking at the world around us and imagining what could be, we can start to shape the future we want to see. So what does the future hold for speculative design?
As we become more reliant on technology, it’s likely that speculative design will increasingly focus on how we interact with devices and artificial intelligence. We’ll need to think about how to design user interfaces that are both user-friendly and ethical, as well as how to create experiences that seamlessly integrate virtual and physical worlds.
We’ll also need to consider the societal implications of new technologies. For example, as autonomous vehicles become more common, we’ll need to think about how they will impact our economy and workforce. Will there be a need for traditional taxi drivers? How will self-driving cars affect traffic patterns and congestion?
These are just a few of the many questions that speculative designers will continue to explore in the years ahead. By asking tough questions and envisioning different futures, we can help create a better world for all of us.
Speculative design is a great way to get creative with your designs and to think outside the box. It can be used to create products or services that don’t yet exist, or to redesign existing ones. I hope this article has given you a better understanding of speculative design and how it can be used in business.
If you’re looking for more information on this topic, check out our other articles on the subject. Thanks for reading!
Speculative everything design, fiction, and social dreaming — Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby
The Young Designer’s Guide to Speculative and Critical Design — Leon Karlsen Johannessen Department of Design Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Speculative — Post-Design Practice or New Utopia?
What is speculative design — VINNOVA
https://speculativeedu.eu/
