Summary
I was invited to be a professional mentor and workshop instructor for a week-long engagement with students in the User Experience Design program at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). The workshop focused on speculative design, encouraging students to explore emerging technologies through creative, scenario-based storytelling.
The lecture included a review of my background, a definition of Diegetic Prototyping, and a definition of Design Fiction. It also included a collection of examples from science fiction movies such as Her, Minority Report, and Star Trek. The lecture included examples from the Near Future Laboratory, specifically the Curious Rituals project—a project I often reference when lecturing about Design Fiction or Diegetic Prototyping.
Deliverables
Students were given 30-40 minutes to create a two-minute vignette envisioning the everyday use of a recently announced technology. The workshop was divided into two sections, each centered on a specific emerging technology announced at the time: META’s ORION and Limitless’s Pendant. With only the product demonstrations provided by Mark Zuckerberg and Limitless as reference points, students were tasked with designing and enacting everyday scenarios involving these technologies. Their vignettes explored ideal functionality, potential glitches, system failures, and plausible use cases, fostering critical thinking and imaginative problem-solving.
Reflections
The students produced remarkably insightful and imaginative outcomes. The quick turnaround encouraged them to generate highly plausible scenarios that could emerge if these technologies were integrated into everyday life. One of the most significant takeaways was how the students responded to the human-centered nature of the narratives they created. By not being constrained by the technical details of emerging technologies, they could focus on human experiences, emphasizing the complexities, vulnerabilities, and nuances of the human condition as it might be shaped, manipulated, or even distorted by technological integration.
This approach highlighted the critical role of speculative design in surfacing ethical considerations and unintended consequences. Students explored how technology could enhance lives and how it might introduce friction, create dependency, or redefine social norms. Their work demonstrated that effective design is not just about what technology can do but how it reshapes human behavior, relationships, and environments—a perspective that is essential in preparing future designers to engage with emerging innovations responsibly and empathetically.
