If you followed Module 02 of the Foundations path, you already know speculative design: Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby's approach that uses design to ask uncomfortable questions about the possible world. Design fiction shares those roots, but takes a different path — more practical, more focused on producing concrete artefacts.
Julian Bleecker, researcher and designer at the Near Future Laboratory, coined the term "Design Fiction" in 2009. His insight was simple but powerful: instead of presenting future scenarios as reports or PowerPoint presentations, why not create objects that seem to come from those futures? An instruction manual for a product that doesn't exist. A newspaper article from 2040. An advert for a future service.
The distinction with Dunne & Raby is not a rivalry — it is a complementarity. Dunne & Raby's speculative design is critical and provocative: it asks "what if the world were different?" and uses objects to challenge deep assumptions. Bleecker's design fiction is more operational: it asks "what would this future look like, concretely?" and produces artefacts that make it visible and debatable.
The word "fiction" is the keystone. It does not mean inventing false or unconstrained science fiction stories. It means we are building possible worlds — plausible, coherent, credible — but not real. This distance is liberating: it allows us to explore alternatives without the weight of inevitability. When we look at a future object, we know it has not happened yet — and we can ask ourselves whether we want it.
Bleecker developed concrete tools for this practice. The best known is the "Design Fiction Product Catalogue": a product catalogue — like IKEA's — but for future objects. Browsing a 2045 catalogue is an immersive experience that makes the future tangible in a way a report never could.
At Relatronica, we use design fiction as a bridge between speculative design theory and concrete civic action. It is not enough to know that futures are shapeable — we need to know how to make them visible, debatable and, above all, shareable with those who have never heard of futures studies.