This project marks the first session at 99P Labs, an innovation lab within a leading automotive company, where we explored future scenarios for 2050 using speculative and participatory design methods.
In the summer of 2023, we co-designed with everyday people, creating future scenarios for 2050 based on their dreams and fears.
Co-design Workshop
We conducted three co-design workshops with 29 people across seven teams.
99P Labs:
9 people in two teams
9 people in two teams
OSU students:
15 people in three teams
15 people in three teams
Over the age of 45:
5 people in two teams
5 people in two teams
Workshop Agenda
● Robot Nametags
● Thing from the Future
● World Quadrant and Team Selection
● Future World Building
● Future Persona
● Future Experience/Artifacts
● Presentation
● Thing from the Future
● World Quadrant and Team Selection
● Future World Building
● Future Persona
● Future Experience/Artifacts
● Presentation
Key Activities
1. The Thing from the Future
"The Thing from the Future” activity warmed people up to their creativity. Each participant chose one card of each color and then generated an idea for the future at the intersection of the cards. This activity draws inspiration from Candy Stuart's work (PDF) Gaming Futures Literacy: The Thing From The Future. We were surprised by how quickly the co-designers were able to generate ideas! All the ideas generated were incorporated in the final analysis.
2. World Quadrant and Team Selection
We introduced the world quadrant to participants and invited them to attach their ideas from "The Thing from the Future" activity to one of four distinct worlds. This quadrant was based on 2050 ARUP Framework, with one axis representing “Planetary Health” and the other "Societal Health." To ensure clarity and accessibility for participants, we simplified the names and descriptions of the four worlds:
● Human-planet Harmony:
Societal conditions and planetary health exist in a harmonious relationship, fortifying each other for mutual progress and benefit.
● Human First, Planet Second:
Societal conditions advance at the cost of planetary health.
● Planet first, Human Second:
The improvement in the health of the planet has been achieved through severe restrictions on human society: restrictive living conditions, conflict, and authoritarian regimes are prevalent.
● Human-planet Death:
Declining planetary health and societal conditions. It is questionable how much longer humanity can survive.
(Reference: https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/research/section/2050-scenarios-four-plausible-futures)
Teams were assigned to different worldviews based on the ideas they developed. However, we found that it was difficult to assign a team to the Planet First Worldview. The ideas they generated from "The Thing from the Future" activity did not fit here. It appeared that we are not used to thinking about the planet first and people second.
● Human-planet Harmony:
Societal conditions and planetary health exist in a harmonious relationship, fortifying each other for mutual progress and benefit.
● Human First, Planet Second:
Societal conditions advance at the cost of planetary health.
● Planet first, Human Second:
The improvement in the health of the planet has been achieved through severe restrictions on human society: restrictive living conditions, conflict, and authoritarian regimes are prevalent.
● Human-planet Death:
Declining planetary health and societal conditions. It is questionable how much longer humanity can survive.
(Reference: https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/research/section/2050-scenarios-four-plausible-futures)
Teams were assigned to different worldviews based on the ideas they developed. However, we found that it was difficult to assign a team to the Planet First Worldview. The ideas they generated from "The Thing from the Future" activity did not fit here. It appeared that we are not used to thinking about the planet first and people second.
3. Future World Building & Future Persona
The "Future World Building" activity helped each team consider broader perspectives for the worlds their personas would live in, focusing on society, politics, economy, environment, and technology. Afterward, each team created two personas for their worldview. We provided materials, including activity templates and images of persona characters, environments, and lifestyles.
The co-designers created 14 future personas: 7 males and 7 females (3 of them being robots). They were a diverse group but not as diverse as they could have been considering the materials that were provided. There were no older people or people with visible disability in the selections.
The co-designers created 14 future personas: 7 males and 7 females (3 of them being robots). They were a diverse group but not as diverse as they could have been considering the materials that were provided. There were no older people or people with visible disability in the selections.
4. Future Experience/Artefact
In this final activity the co-designers were provided with a wide range of materials to work with. They rose to the challenge and created an extraordinary range of ideas, having been well prepared by the previous activities.
