Blog2 | How Jai Ang

SPECULATIVE
DESIGN

What is design? Before taking this design course, I believed that design mainly revolved around the visual aspects of both physical and digital creations. However, It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out very quickly that there are multiple definitions. Steve Jobs expressed that design digs deeper than “how it looks” and is about “how it really works” (Merchant, 2011). Another fantastic designer, Nick Konings, stated that “design(s) are dependent on the worldviews and values of the people… practicing ‘design’”. These different definitions prove that there are various approaches to design, and I, a green first-year design student, will try and dissect one of the frameworks in this blog.

What are the key features of Speculative Design?

As you can tell from the title page, I will be uncovering the topic of Speculative design. Dunne & Raby (2013) understood Speculative Design as “problem finding, with design framed as a medium that asks questions in the service of society for how the world could be.” This means that the framework is highly associated with designing under a critical lens where more questions than answers are brought up.

This association leads to one of the key features of Speculative design. To find questions instead of answers. The framework analyzes traditional design methods and evaluates the creations within and outside their context. Bringing fourth the ‘why’s of the designs allows outsiders to view the intended lens given by the designers, and thus the messages that are heard become a thought that is considered in future demands and designs. For example, the retail brand Icebreaker uses this feature in their plastic awareness campaign in 2021 to make buyers question the responsibility of their consumption of clothing.

Man dressed in plastic wrap positioned behind engraved fence - Icebreaker

Another key feature is imagining the future. Designs are viewed in different perspectives and new contexts so that products and systems can be reinterpreted on a spectrum from possible to preferable scenarios (Mitrović, 2019). Thus, designs are removed from the limitations they are bound to and exposed to fiction and future technological opportunities. By speculating without constraints, disciplines can connect and influence their audience. It is important to note that the lesser there are constraints to the design, the lesser the plausibility of the scenario occurring.

The last feature I will mention is world-building. This feature is entirely related to the previous except that there is a focus on context. Before a designer can imagine the future, speculative designs require context and a new world to live in to shape the reasons for the said designs.

Examples of world-building include:

Creating a timeline where the past is studied to forecast the future.
Creating fictional maps where topography expresses the different living conditions in each continent, concept art to create visuals for our five senses.
Roleplaying to establish how the world’s society operates and more.

A wireframe of potential futures - Ivica Mitrović

How does it differ from other design frameworks I've encountered so far?

Speculative design unsurprisingly differed from my knowledge of conventional design. Before being exposed to speculative design, affirmative design was all that I had known. I trace this thinking to my personality trait of being practical. Why use up scarce resources to create ‘what if’ scenarios? Would that not be considered wasteful? Now I believe that this is not the case. Speculative design gives viewers forecasts and insight into the future, allowing disciplines to plan and create accordingly.

BEYOND SPECULATIVE DESIGN

What are the strengths/limitations of this mode of design?

After research, there is no doubt that speculative design is essential. Its strengths derive from interrogating existing systems in search of improvements. These improvements can be made from functionalities of future innovations to social aspects of the environment where the design is held. For example, the American media, Star Trek, was a science fiction series that used speculative design to influence our devices and the environment we currently live in (Gupta, n.d.). Throughout the show, the protagonist could be seen using an electronic device that resembled the modern-day iPad. Keep in mind that Star Trek was established in the 1960s! It also encouraged cultural diversity by having people of color cast, a social stigma during that time.

Other design modes can uncover speculative design's limitations; in this case, I will use affirmative design. Though speculation can provide essential questions that rewire paradigms for the better, its effectiveness comes in the long run, whereas affirmative design is immediate and targets solving current issues. This limitation holds affirmative designs in higher regard for short-run problems, such as developing cures for evolving viruses.

Star Trek team consisting of different races - Getty Images

CASE STUDY

EARTH 2050

In comparison to another Speculative Design.

The project by Kaspersky is a website that acts as a collection of predictions from experts and internet users around the globe (Alayon, 2018). This allows forecasts for each city on Earth, whether prosperous or disastrous, to be uploaded to the site where others can evaluate it. Given the nature of the project, it speculates the impacts humans will have on themselves and the environment in the future. This allows our generation of designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs to plan accordingly for a more sustainable and advanced future.

Earth 2050 communicates its issues through a website full of blogs (posted by experts), with access to viewing a green globe with glowing points in place of cities with their corresponding predictions. The project's scope is global, therefore acting as a breeding ground for critical thinking between multiple cultures. The visual communication used by Kaspersky is engaging and easy to navigate. It is clear that the overall goal of the design was to be a discussion forum of predictions for the human race, packed with beautiful concept art.

Plasticful Food by Waste2Worth was a speculative challenge that imagined a future where we ingest plastic to reduce waste and treatment to maintain such a lifestyle (Design Futures Initiative, 2020). The project was able to create unique and colorful artifacts of the plastic food, which helped me visualize its future perspective. However, in my eyes, it seemed less probable and more possible, as there are multiple preferable options humans would choose over plastic consumption. Even If I agreed with the speculation, I would be unable to communicate my thoughts, an area that Earth 2050 innovates upon. I believe that the team at Kaspersky was able to create a successful medium for critical view between experts and enthusiasts, to post their future scenarios in the context of 2030, 2040, or 2050.

There is beauty in the idea that Earth 2050 leaves no answers. Every post can be critiqued with sub-posts to expand or alter the original creator's vision. The freedom for thought, information collection, and engaging visuals of Earth 2050 make it one step above what Plasticful Food had to offer regarding critical thinking and future projections.

Earth 2050's website - Earth 2050 by Kaspersky

Colourful artefacts representing plastic food - Plasticful Food

References

Alayon, D. (2018). Earth 2050: A glimpse into the future. https://medium.com/future-today/earth-2050-a-glimpse-into-the-future-93a82d1a358c

Design Futures Initiative. (2020). Plastic: Villain or Hero Winners - Plasticful Foods [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/431903654

Dunne, A. & Raby, F. (2013). SPECULATIVE EVERYTHING: DESIGN, FICTION, AND SOCIAL DREAMING. The MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262318495/

Gupta, S. (n.d.). Speculative Designs. DigitallySwati. https://digitallyswati.com/best-speculative-designs-impact/

Merchant, N. (2011). Steve Job’s Legacy: Design Your Own Life. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2011/10/steve-jobs-legacy-design-your#:~:text=Steve%20Jobs%20was%20known%20for%20being%20a%20design,Some%20people%20think%20design%20means%20how%20it%20looks

Mitrović, I. (2019). Introduction to Speculative Design Practice. Speculative - Post-Design Practice Or New Utopia? https://speculative.hr/en/introduction-to-speculative-design-practice/