Madison Vale

What if, instead of just designing for today, we could design for a future that might not even exist yet? That’s the basic idea behind design fiction. It’s a creative approach that asks “What if?” rather than “How do we make this work right now?”

What Exactly Is Design Fiction?

Design fiction is basically where science fiction and design collide. Pretty cool, right? Instead of designing things to use right away, like an app or a logo, design fiction focuses on creating scenarios for a fictional future. This could include ads for a changed version of society, an invention that doesn’t exist yet, or a product from a totally different time. It’s all about thinking outside of the box.

A great example of this is Ikea’s Space10 Lab. They’ve worked on projects that imagine what Ikea products might look like in a future where humans live on Mars. Their designs are playful and creative, but also built around ideas like sustainability and adaptability. It’s all made up, but by visualizing a future that feels possible, they give us an idea of what kinds of directions we can head in.

Why Visual Design Is Key

If you’ve ever seen a sci-fi movie where a futuristic city feels as real as your own, then you’ve seen the power of visual design. Visual designers are the ones who help these worlds come to life. They create the buildings, gadgets, clothing, and other elements that make a fiction feel like fact. It’s all about the minor details. Because without them, you’re just telling a story. But with visuals, you’re immersing people into that story.

Black Mirror, the TV series that’s become famous for its eerily realistic takes on the near future, is another great example of using visual design to make fiction feel like fact. Each episode has a unique style and aesthetic that is often hinting at a world that’s just a step beyond our own. Designers carefully craft every detail from the interfaces on devices to the architecture of the environments. All in order to draw us in and make us think about what we’re seeing. Watching an episode can almost make you feel like you’re living in their world, which is exactly what makes it so powerful.

How does Black Mirror REALLY tie into real life? The same technique of using design fiction to create for this fiction future is also used by designers working on perspective projects for real life companies. By creating visuals that look and feel real, they help us ask big questions: Would we actually want to live like this? How would this technology change our lives? Essentially, taking the “what ifs” and making them something we can see, almost touch, and actually really think about.

Why Design Fiction Matters

Visual designers aren’t just people who make things look nice; more and more, they’re asked to consider how their designs will shape people’s experiences and expectations. The future is unpredictable so sometimes the best way to understand it is to imagine it first. That’s where design fiction makes its grand entrance. It’s not just about looks; it’s about envisioning what it would mean to live with this kind of technology and asking questions like, “Is this really what we want?”

Design fiction is all about imagination and exploration. It helps everyone think about the future through a creative lens. For designers, it’s a chance to go beyond just making things and think about what kinds of futures we want to help create. By designing things that don’t exist yet, we’re not just dreaming, we’re changing the expectations of what’s possible.

Citations

Design fiction starts with the creation of scenarios of possible futures. Schoolab. (2022, May 3). https://us.theschoolab.com/faq/methodology/design-fiction/

Fuller, J. (2016, October). Black Mirror and Design Fiction. Black Mirror and Design fiction-Jarrett Fuller. https://jarrettfuller.com/projects/blackmirror

Space10: An innovation lab – ikea global. IKEA. (n.d.). https://www.ikea.com/global/en/stories/sustainability/space10-190904/

Speculative design vs. design fiction. School of Critical Design – Applied Speculative Design. (n.d.). https://www.critical.design/post/speculative-design-vs-design-fiction#:~:text=Defining%20Design%20Fiction&text=It%20involves%20creating%20fictional%20scenarios,provoke%20discussion%20about%20their%20implications.

This is how design fiction could shape a sustainable (real) future. World Economic Forum. (n.d.). https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/11/what-is-design-fiction-and-how-can-it-shape-the-real-future/