W04: Using Speculative Design to Shape Preferable Futures

Using Speculative Design to Shape Preferable Futures

It is increasingly important to bring together experts from diverse backgrounds, to start a dialogue of collectively re-imagining preferable futures. The services, products and technology we are designing/creating today to solve today’s problems might have a profound impact on the future. Using some of the methodologies like thought experimentation or scenario building, we can take ownership of those futures. In return this helps us in crafting the strategies that lead to our shared vision.

Speculative Design allows us to explore, hybridise, borrow, and embrace the many tools available for crafting ideas through fictional worlds, cautionary tales, what-if scenarios, and thought experiments. It can play a significant role in broadening our conception of what is possible and challenges we face, in a way, that the traditional design approach fails.

Using tools and methods borrowed from Speculative Design, we will explore how these can help broaden the horizon and foster interdisciplinary conversations between different stakeholders on how to build, design, and deploy tech responsibly.

The workshop will feature what speculative design is and different methods and tools, examples of different speculative design projects, and also highlight how we can use this method and evaluate the implications that emerging technologies have in our society. Attendees will be encouraged to think critically about the implication of our creations.

What you will learn

You will leave with an appreciation of how speculative design methods and tools can help you in your work, having had the opportunity to try some out in the workshop. Come away feeling inspired and empowered!

In this workshop, you will learn:

• Why we should start applying Speculative Design methods and tools in our practices.
• What the different Speculative Design methods and tools are, and when to use them in your work, especially when crafting strategies for emerging technologies.
• The importance of being critical, not taking things for granted, and to question everything!

Who should attend this workshop

Workshop Leaders

Promila Roychoudhury-Koho, Senior Designer
Promila is a service and interaction designer based in Helsinki. She is specialised in speculating implications of design and technologies in our society. Promila has over 12 years of experience as a digital design Consultant working in the intersection of design and technology, on projects that span multiple industries. She graduated from the Royal College of Art, studying Design Interactions and Speculative Design.

Andrea Vianello, Design Researcher, UX and Service Designer
Andrea is interested in how digital technology can support people in their everyday life, and he is passionate in using research techniques to focus on users and understand their needs when designing it.
Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher in Human-Computer Interaction at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology and Aalto University, Finland (2015-2017). He received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Udine, Italy, where he worked in the HCI Lab (2012-2015).

Sanna Vainionpää, Principal Consultant and Digital Strategy Director
Sanna has nearly 20 years’ experience in complex and large-scale business development, service design, innovation creation and marketing expert positions. She has broad experience leading global and international digital service ecosystems in various industries, both consulting and in-house. More recently, she has focused on new business development, innovation, digital strategy, and finding growth possibilities within ecosystem services.