If physical objects are the heart of design fiction, diegetic media are the circulatory system that brings them to life. Packaging, instruction manuals, advertising, interface screenshots, newspaper articles, online reviews, bills, contracts: everything that surrounds a product in the real world can be diegetically replicated to build a credible future.
Packaging is often underrated, but extremely powerful. A box with logo, barcode, legal warnings, recycling icons and multilingual instructions immediately says: "this exists, is produced, distributed, regulated". When the Near Future Laboratory or other studios create packaging for imaginary products, they use exactly the visual codes we recognise from the supermarket shelf — and distort them slightly to reveal the future world.
Instruction manuals and quick guides are ideal formats for participatory design fiction. They are structured, scannable, familiar. A manual for a "Neighbourhood Data Trust" or a "Personal Carbon Budget Device" explains rules, responsibilities and procedures — making the trade-offs of a scenario visible. In a workshop, asking participants to write the manual for a speculative object produces extraordinary insights into hidden implications.
Diegetic advertising completes the commercial picture. A poster, a radio spot, an online banner for a future service uses the persuasive language we already know — promises, benefits, calls to action — applied to different worlds. The dissonance between reassuring advertising tone and unsettling content is one of the most effective effects of civic design fiction.
UI screenshots and newspaper articles from the future are among the most accessible media to produce digitally. A news feed dated 2038, a healthcare booking app with controversial access criteria, a social thread about a new law: formats requiring only basic graphic design or text editing skills. Stuart Candy often uses "future news" in workshops to make scenarios immediately debatable — because we all know how to read a news story and form an opinion.
The power of diegetic media lies in their multiplication. A single object becomes a narrative ecosystem when you accompany it with packaging, manual, advertising, review and news. Each medium adds an angle, a voice, a different register on the same future. For those designing civic scenarios, this multiplication is not decoration — it is a method for making the future readable, debatable and, above all, actionable.