Envisioning uncertain futures: A structured framework for speculative co-design workshops.

Abstract

While speculative design is increasingly used to envision uncertain futures, there is a lack of facilitation guidance on how to systematically prepare and structure co-design workshops to support participant imagination and the envisioning process. This study addresses this gap by detailing a systematic approach to speculative co-design and employing a qualitative, observational case study of five speculative co-design workshops with 20 participants in the automotive field. Through the application of a six-stage workshop process that utilised embodied and improvisational techniques, we investigated how participants’ engagement could be enhanced and how rich qualitative data could be generated. Through inductive observations of the workshops and thematic analysis of the workshop content, we identified three core facilitation components that enable imaginative envisioning of uncertain futures: 1) narrative setting, 2) enactment cue and 3) empowerment dynamics. The findings formalise the components into the Action Wheel as a methodological guide, which presents a replicable methodological facilitating guide that provides a starting point for researchers and practitioners to enable participants to engage with uncertain futures in speculative design contexts.