As speculative design is currently facing other perspectives than Product Design, this essay seeks to identify these approaches in the context of Interaction Design, carefully studying the meeting points between speculative means and digital prototyping. In this way, as a case study for this research, the essay will draw upon the practical experiences gained throughout the formation, ideation and finalisation of the ‘Straw More’ project. In addition, this paper seeks to relate all of the findings to ethical questions, analysing to which extent these concerns are achieved or overlooked.  

As speculative design is currently facing other perspectives than Product Design, this essay seeks to identify these approaches in the context of Interaction Design, carefully studying the meeting points between speculative means and digital prototypes. In this way, the essay will draw upon not only related literature sources, but also upon the practical experiences gained throughout the formation, ideation and finalisation of the ‘Strawmore’ project. Regarded as a relevant case study for the question in place, most of the arguments will be connected to decisions and lessons gained throughout the design practice. In addition, this paper seeks to relate all of the findings to ethical questions, analysing to which extent these concerns are achieved or overlooked. When discussing ethical implications a parallel between the main case study and a supplementary speculative design project is drawn.  

According to Auger, 2010; Dunne and Raby, 2013 and Malpass 2013, speculative design is a specific form of critical design practice that has developed to focus on socio-scientific and socio-technical concerns. As an integrated approach in speculative design (Malpass, 2013), design fiction is the method used by designers in order to hypothesize and generate discussion over a wide variety of topics, using highly imaginative and conceptual approaches, most of the times on the edge of science and science fiction. Over the last few years, this method of designing has gained a high popularity amongst creatives, allowing themselves to experiment, explore and form concepts that draw a common line between art, design and science. According to Lim, Stolterman and Teneberg, 2008, a differentiation between prototypes and prototyping is highly needed in order to understand the process. In this way, prototypes define the materialisation and concretisation of design ideas, whereas prototyping represents the series of activities carried out by the designers in order to achieve these forms, physical or digital. This essay is considering only digital means of prototyping, encompassing any techniques that involve the use of software and that are realised in the virtual space.  

Design fiction represents a new opportunity for designers to create awareness and start discussion over crucial topics that have already exploit the possibilities of informational design and not only. ‘Strawmore’, as a speculative design project, engages with the globally recognised topic of single-use plastic, in particular with the usage of plastic straws that have a direct effect on marine life and subsequently on the climate change phenomenon. Rejecting the success rate, in the existing conditions, of raising awareness through informational design methods, the project explores the possibilities of speculative design as an approach to start discussion among the users of plastic straws. Thus, a new world is portrayed where the object gains extensive value and it becomes an asset in the user’s social image. The project imagines a new reality where people are actively interested in purchasing and showcasing their straw as an inseparable element in one’s daily activities. Produced from highly resistant materials such as titanium, gold, silver and even animal skin, ‘Strawmore’ manages to raise the ethical questions attached to the topic. It is even ethical to discuss such matters? Why imagine such scenarios in the first place, instead of focusing on the actual and the solution? Does it really create constructive discussion or does it only open the mind towards the negative and careless consideration? 

Design fiction presents the advantage of releasing the designer of the limitations of commercial design (Malpass, 2016) and allowing space for the imagination. However, in order to accommodate this practice into finalised products, it is highly necessary to employ prototyping techniques. In this way, digital prototyping offers a wide spectrum of visualisation opportunities for the desired topic. ‘Straw more’ applies digital methods such as 3D visualisation, photo manipulation and video production. However, it is still arguable if the same effects can be achieved only through physical prototyping, but the project represents a good example of the extent to which speculative approaches can be taken when depicted through digital techniques. Moreover, in this case study, digital prototyping brings realistic value by offering the possibility of showcasing the concept in a pragmatic way. Portrayed in the digital form of a shop where users are able to purchase their own personalised straw, the project breaks down the fictional through realistic looks and offers a gradual immersion in the imagined world of titanium and animal skin straws.  

Offering form to these design ideas employs the use of digital techniques, therefore involves the common act of prototyping carried out by designers. In a commercial scenario, these series of activities usually become iterative, observational, with the scope of producing the best version of the artefact, which at the same time encompasses the initial design decisions of function and use. Several sessions of user testing are applied in order to accommodate, as much as possible, the realistic interaction in the designed scenario. While this manifestation and concretisation of the abstract through prototyping techniques and activities still apply to speculative design, the actual functionality of it, can and will remain abstract in most of the cases as during speculative design practice the goal is not the create something functional, but to simulate the idea in its context. In this way, the release from technical implications offers an even wider space for creation.  

Therefore, considering digital prototyping as a space that brings about realism and an unrestricted space for the creation of speculative designs, the meeting point between the two becomes almost invisible, but at the same time highly logical. In this matter, ethical concerns must remain the centre of the topic. Ethics as a strongly connected aspect of every design practice, dwell mainly within the moral and creative implications of proposed projects. In the context of speculative design, the designer breaks the boundaries of these implications by formulating concepts usually around highly sensible societal or humanistic topics. ‘Dawn Chorus’ is a concept that portrays an intelligent birdfeeder that uses behaviourist training to teach local songbirds the owner’s favourite songs (Gaver, 2000). Even though, the design practice in itself looks for exploration within the possibilities of artificial intelligence, the application of this potential can raise ethical concerns. To which extent is it righteous to alter a sentient’s being way of behaving to one’s liking? To the same extent, ‘Straw more’ seeks to raise awareness within a topic by using the behavioural patterns that are actually causing the issues and it does go to larger extent by involving sensitive elements such as straws produced from animal skin. Therefore, it is considered that speculative design presents an unlimited freedom compared to other design practices, however it must not overlook the effects of visual representation and integrated elements that are highly disapproved amongst contemporary opinions. In this way, it can also be stated that this practice will always be linked to ethical criticism if not designed in the right boundaries. Considering all of the above, it is highly important for the designer to understand which are the right boundaries when designing with fiction and speculating about future probabilities. One of the main advantages of this practice is the possibility of imagining new realities and opening the mind to new probabilities and most of the concepts hold within in-built values, even though they are portrayed most of the times through reversed psychology or assigning different use to known notions.  

All in all, in the case study presented, it is easy to identify the meeting point between speculative approaches and digital prototyping and to define this space as highly unregulated by technical or usability concerns. At the same time, it is easily recognisable the permanent presence of ethical implications when working within this area. As described above, when compared to commercial design practice, a freedom of creation is determined within speculative design, characterised through elements such as highly conceptual and highly imaginative, no requirements for active functional or perfect usability and last, but not least the opportunity to provoke and start discussion over a wide range of topics. This high level of freedom that is placed in the hands of the designer, however, must at all times be questioned by the ethical concerns present in every design practice. It is almost a sensus communis that through design we help improve the environment around and the way we shape this space must not be overlooked. This essay identifies the value in challenging the viewer’s perception and way of thinking about the future, while it also identifies the need of always designing in relation to ethical concerns.  Considering all these, it feels almost natural for digital prototyping to enter the space of speculative design, the meeting point between the two concepts becoming the desire to create in new ways, not bound by past and traditional convictions. It is an approach that is forming shape as we discuss, but which will find its place in the traditional ways of designing for people. 

References 

Gaver, B. & Martin. H. (2000). Alternatives: Exploring information appliances through conceptual design proposals. CHI Letters, 2(1), 209 – 216. ACM Press.  

Malpass, M. (2016). Critical Design Practice: Theoretical perspectives and methods of engagement. Design Journal, 19(3), 473 – 489. 

Lim, Youn-kyung & Stolterman, Erik & Tenenberg, Josh. (2008). The anatomy of prototypes: Prototypes as filters, prototypes as manifestations of design ideas. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 15. 

Strawmore [Scholarly project]. (2019, May 28). In Strawmore. Retrieved from https://fghadir.wixsite.com/strawmore