Speculative design is not just theory — it is a practice with specific methods. The most well-known is Design Fiction: the creation of artefacts that tell a story about a possible future without needing an explicit narrative. An instruction manual for a product that doesn't exist. A newspaper article from 2040. An advert for a future service. These objects "speak" about the future by showing it, not describing it.
Julian Bleecker of the Near Future Laboratory coined the term and developed one of the most practical tools: the "Design Fiction Product Catalogue". The idea is to create a product catalogue — like IKEA's — but for future objects. Browsing a 2045 catalogue is an immersive experience that makes the future tangible and debatable.
Another powerful tool is the diegetic prototype — a term borrowed from cinema. In a film, an object is "diegetic" when it belongs to the world of the story (Star Wars' lightsaber exists in the film's world, not ours). A diegetic prototype is an object designed as if it belonged to a future world. It doesn't need to work: it needs to be credible enough to provoke a conversation.
World-building is the process of constructing the world in which these artefacts exist. It's not enough to design a future object: you need to understand the society that produced it. What laws exist? What values dominate? Who holds power and who doesn't? Rigorous world-building is what distinguishes a convincing speculative scenario from a superficial fantasy.
Stuart Candy, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, developed the concept of "Experiential Futures" — futures you can experience. Instead of presenting scenarios as reports or presentations, Candy proposes making people live them: immersive installations, role-playing games, performances. When you experience the future, the reflection is infinitely deeper.
These methods are accessible to anyone: you don't need huge budgets or advanced technical skills. A design fiction workshop can be done with paper, pen and imagination. What you need is the courage to ask uncomfortable questions.