What is speculative design ?

Speculative design is a futuristic design that aims to address larger societal issues through design processes and systems. It thinks about how the future can be made better on a large scale with the help of design. It thinks beyond user-centered design. Many ideas that started as speculative designs are a reality today as technology made them possible.

“Where typical design takes a look at small issues, speculative design broadens the scope and tries to tackle the biggest issues in society.” ~ Simon Kulkov

One such example is that of autonomous cars.

“I believe in a preferable future containing a 100-percent-sustainable and automatic transport system.” ~ Elon Musk, Founder of Tesla

Speculative design does not necessarily have to fall within the boundaries of what is ‘rationally’ possible with the currently available technology. It aims to design outside the limitations of culture, society, technology, and politics.

“Speculative design gives designers an opportunity to stretch their imaginations and develop new and boundary-pushing systems and prototypes for the future.” ~ an_yes (on twitter).

Speculative design aims to design all possible futures that could be. The book Speculative Everything shows a taxonomy of futures as shown below:

Speculative design should fall in one of these future categories, i.e., possible, plausible, probable, or preferable. Anything outside these is in the realm of fantasy. Speculative design is not fantasy. Rather it aims to bring an actual improvement in the future.

Issues

• Not directly in line with the agenda of creating wealth.
• Less demand for a design that addresses societal improvement in the current atomized society.
• People are pessimistic towards design that has a chance of not becoming a reality.

As the originators of speculative design, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, say:

“Design today is concerned primarily with commercial and marketing activities, but it could operate on a more intellectual level. It could place new technological developments within imaginary but believable everyday situations that would allow us to debate the implications of different technological futures before they happen.”

Examples

1. Earth 2050 - this website allows you to enter a year 20 to 30 years from now, and it shows how the society might be then - what might people eat, how might they live, do jobs, etc.

2. Compression Carpet - a carpet that gives a hug to people, mimicking a human hug.

3. Alias - a voice UI parasite trained by people to have more control over their smart assistants. It can be trained to customized words etc.