Design Futures: A New Discipline, Tool and Medium

• Main Authors: Andrea Paraboschi, Pierluigi Dalla Rosa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Aracne editrice 2016-07-01
• Series: DigitCult@Scientific Journal on Digital Cultures
• Online Access: http://www.digitcult.it/index.php/dc/article/view/15

While digital media are providing a valuable resource to keep the world connected, their intrinsic channel speed has made information extremely transient and present-oriented in its nature, often lacking overall quality in an era of data over-abundance. If rear-view mirrorism has been characterizing our attitude towards the future, nowadays our speed of technological development is making it unfeasible to face what is next while running backwards. At the crossroads of design fiction, interaction design, ethnographic research and future foresights, the design futures discipline aims to create engaging future-projected experiences, with the goal of inspiring people, increasing their awareness on contemporary challenges and their willingness to act, responsibly impacting the future and consciously choosing among possible alternatives. In this paper we trace the origins and the role of the new discipline, we provide a definition, we introduce some examples and we analyze design futures’ role as a multidisciplinary platform for discussion and convergent media experimentation and development.