What is design fiction?

Design fiction uses the creation of fictional, often plausible artefacts, scenarios, or prototypes to provoke thought about possible futures and the implications of technologies, suspending disbelief to explore consequences before they become real.

How does critical design differ from conventional design?

Conventional ('affirmative') design aims to solve problems and serve markets, whereas critical design deliberately produces artefacts that question assumptions and values, prioritising reflection and debate over usefulness or commercial success.

Critical and Speculative Design

Critical and speculative design use designed artefacts and scenarios to question assumptions, provoke debate, and imagine alternative futures rather than to solve immediate problems.

Definition

Critical and speculative design is the use of designed objects, scenarios, and fictions to question existing conditions and explore possible and preferable futures rather than to deliver commercial solutions.

Scope

This topic covers critical design, which challenges prevailing values and the role of design in consumer society; speculative design and design fiction, which materialise possible futures to provoke reflection; and related discursive practices. It treats design as a medium for inquiry and critique alongside its problem-solving role, positioned between design, art, and futures studies.

Core questions

How can design function as critique rather than problem-solving?
How do speculative artefacts and fictions provoke reflection on possible futures?
What is the relationship between critical design, art, and futures studies?
What are the limits and criticisms of speculative practice?

Key theories

Critical design: Dunne argues that design can be 'critical' rather than 'affirmative', using artefacts to embody and question the values and assumptions embedded in everyday products and the broader culture of consumption.
Speculative design and social dreaming: Dunne and Raby extend critical design into speculation, using carefully crafted fictional products and scenarios to open debate about what kind of futures are desirable, treating design as a form of social dreaming.

History

Critical design was developed at the Royal College of Art from the late 1990s by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, drawing on radical Italian design and conceptual art. It expanded in the 2000s and 2010s into speculative design and design fiction, gaining academic prominence while also attracting criticism over its audiences, politics, and tendency toward elite, gallery-bound practice.

Debates

Provocation versus action: Whether critical and speculative design meaningfully changes anything or remains a self-referential practice for galleries and academia, and whether its often privileged perspective limits the futures it imagines.

Key figures

Anthony Dunne
Fiona Raby
James Auger
Bruce Sterling

Seminal works

dunne2005
dunneraby2013
auger2013

Frequently asked questions

What is design fiction?: Design fiction uses the creation of fictional, often plausible artefacts, scenarios, or prototypes to provoke thought about possible futures and the implications of technologies, suspending disbelief to explore consequences before they become real.
How does critical design differ from conventional design?: Conventional ('affirmative') design aims to solve problems and serve markets, whereas critical design deliberately produces artefacts that question assumptions and values, prioritising reflection and debate over usefulness or commercial success.