ALTERNATIVE TO FUTURES CONE
Speculative Design Tool,
Present
The existing futures cone shows us how to map the possible scenarios, but here we wanted to challenge it by asking what are the ways we can use it for our short and long-term future strategies.
We proposed an alternative tool that can help us visually represent the relationality between time and the future we aim to achieve.
Team-
Timeframe-
2 Weeks (Spring 2021)
Role-
Tool development,
Visual design
Anatomy of the tool-
The aim of the project was to understand and reflect on traditional planning and structuring futures methods like predictive analysis and linear regressions.
How does it work-
Tool Application-
To apply the tool we created a story with 4 different characters from around the globe, and to imagine the future of the characters three different scenarios are created with a different future for each character.
It was important to highlight that what might be one's projected future can be someone else's preposterous. This helped in bringing out the individuality and uniqueness of each character and also helped in visualizing serendipity.
The lines where bubbles connect tells us that there was a high chance of the lives of our characters intersecting-- be it direct or indirect.
Storytelling-
As our final product, we prototyped an audiobook called Space Between Us, that tells us about the story of our characters in different futures.
Approach-
We followed the rhizomatic learning method to form the structure of our approach. By probing into what are the various possibilities our characters would/ can intersect, and how that would ultimately affect the final result, creating meaningful relationships in the post-pandemic world is something that is worth adding to our character development process.
Character Development-
We started by exploring what will the future look like in 10 years. For our team, it meant that we rethink and reimagine our rituals, products, and environment that defines us.
Tool Explorations-
Conclusion-
By working on this project, I have become more comfortable in visualizing uncertainty and thinking, and designing for future scenarios. There is a lot of potential in this tool as it can be used to project one's own desired future and also can be applied for companies to make a decision that helps in defining how their decisions and choices would shape up the future and what kind of impact would it have on our society.