On Speculative Enactments

Abstract

Speculative Enactments are a novel approach to speculative design research with participants. They invite the empirical analysis of participants acting amidst speculative but consequential circumstances. HCI as a broadly pragmatic, experience-centered, and participant-focused field is well placed to innovate methods that invite first-hand interaction and experience with speculative design projects. We discuss three case studies of this approach in practice, based on our own work: Runner Spotters, Metadating and a Quantified Wedding. In distinguishing Speculative Enactments we offer not just practical guidelines, but a set of conceptual resources for researchers and practitioners to critique the different contributions that speculative approaches can make to HCI discourse.

The future of computing and wisdom: Insights from Human–Computer Interaction

“…Design fiction has since developed in different ways (Lindley and Coulton 2015) and Elsden et al (2017) suggest that speculative approaches in HCI have been used for several different purposes, e.g. for 1) critique, 2) exploring emerging technologies and 3) opening up areas for future research.…”

“…for 1) critique, 2) exploring emerging technologies and 3) opening up areas for future research. Design fiction, as part speculative design (Dunne & Raby 2013) "relies on imagination and fiction to develop critical dialogues and discourse about new, alternative and future paradigms of technology use" (Elsden et al 2017).…”

Making a Room for the IoT: a Domestic Demonstration

“…Building upon the theory that in Design Fictions "the format is the message" [12], this approach-where it is possible to achieve-can arguably immerse the Design Fiction's audience to the maximum possible degree, and thus open up the space for meaningful discussions in a uniquely powerful way. This approach to futures methodology is not completely unique, for example they are similar to Candy's the roleplaying elements of Candy's Experiential Futures [13] and Elsden et al's Speculative Enactments [14], however in the LRoTF the interactivity that supports the diegesis is enacted by the system rather than by humans. Although crafting such experiential Design Fiction is not always possible, and hence is not proposed as a universal approach for Design Fiction practitioners, in this paper we have described one circumstance where a Design Fiction can be experienced directly.…”

Eliciting Values Reflections by Engaging Privacy Futures Using Design Workbooks

“…Our work suggests that these design artifacts can be used to elicit values reflections among other populations who are not the designers. This follows the call by Elsden et al for speculative and critical design to broaden and engage with the "applied, participatory and experience-centered" aspects of the HCI field [19]. We are inspired by the applied design research method of speed dating [15,49], which is traditionally deployed early in a design process, engaging users with a large set of near-future prototypes, scenarios, or design ideas, in order to better understand future user needs.…”

“…Several felt that Vital Radio Match's claims to match couples based on heartbeat had no discernable basis in scientific evidence. Future work might further this by encouraging participants to experience the designs as real, perhaps as speculative enactments [19].…”