ABSTRACT
We live in dynamic times. Human-Computer Interaction practitioners engage with rapid technological change. Yet, so much else in the world around us is also changing. First, consider the ongoing social, economic, environmental, and political changes that shape the context where organizations, practitioners, and educators operate. Second, think of how the unfolding climate disaster is shifting where and how people live. Third, envision the need for a rapid transition to zero-carbon lifestyles by 2050. How might designers operate in such rapidly changing realities? This chapter describes how designers can shift from a destructive design paradigm that “defutures” the world and takes away our collective futures to a constructive design paradigm called “design futuring” that gives us a collective future. The focus of this chapter is seven Futures methods helpful to align short-term design action with long-term sustainability vision goals: (a) explore drivers of change, (b) critique images of futures, (c) design for alternative futures, (d) deepen understandings of Futures with CLA, (e) mapping pathways linking past, present, and futures, (f) exploring internal and external futures, and (g) structuring Design Futures experiences.
