Qu’est-ce que le design fiction ? Définition simple et détaillée

In the corporate world,design fiction is mainly used to stimulate innovation. Without making predictions, this creative method allows us to ask ourselves what we want tomorrow's company to look like, and to question the decisions we need to make today.

Ce processus d’innovation est certes très ancré dans le futur, mais son objectif est bel et bien d’agir et de renforcer la stratégie d’entreprise dans le présent. Ce processus de réflexion prospective doit se traduire par des actions concrètes permettant de résoudre des problèmes, de structurer de nouveaux projets innovants et, à terme, de maintenir la compétitivité d’une entreprise.

As a means of creating debate and speculation, design fiction is increasingly used by companies today, as it is a real tool for projecting, experimenting, making decisions and implementing actions. 

This technique enables an innovative company toimagine possible futures and their consequences, toexplore the implications of new technologies or social changes, always looking at the weak signals already observable in the present.

In concrete terms, design fiction can answer a number of questions, such as:

• Is it possible to identify a new technology, a social phenomenon or an innovative idea that will transform the market in the medium to long term - in other words, a current weak signal?
• What would our society look like if this change were to take place?
• What needs might this development bring?
• How can the company adapt and renew itself to meet these new needs?

This forward-looking vision makes it easier to anticipate future needs. Any company, whatever its size or sector of activity, can use design fiction to project itself and generate ideas: new technologies, health and safety, engineering, leisure and creativity, culture, tourism, digital start-ups, local authorities, etc.

This collaborative innovation strategy has several advantages:

• Design fiction allows us toenvisage different scenarios, and not limit ourselves to a single possibility. It widens the field of possibilities and anticipates several possible futures.
• Forward-looking scenarios enable us toapproach issues and problems from a new angle. Freed from the usual constraints of strategic thinking, employees are more creative.
• By boosting the imagination, this innovative exercise allows us toexplore new avenues, develop new ideas and generate action.
• Design fiction helps to ask the right questions and unlock potential resistance to change. It's a tool for brainstorming and debate, for questioning the present, imagining and building the future.
• Using storytelling elements, this approach makes imagined situations real and moving enough to generate productive debate.
• It's a collaborative approach that uses collective intelligence to support the transformation of companies and their employees.
• With its longer-term focus, it is a complementary tool to design thinking.

To reap the full benefits of a design fiction project, it's best to define a future that's sufficiently close for participants to be able to project themselves easily. It's also important to bear in mind that this method is human-centered, and that its aim is always to innovate in the service of people.

Design fiction can be a powerful tool for innovation. But it's important to realize that this creative thinking is in no way intended to provide an exact forecast of the future. To assert otherwise could be counter-productive.

Fiction is, by definition, a subjective construction. The way we look at a subject or an issue is rarely neutral. As a result, the fictional framework proposed collectively will inevitably be influenced by everyone's experience, point of view and values. The innovation process must therefore always be based on concrete elements, on weak signals observed in the present that could potentially develop in the medium and long term.

Design fiction is often proposed in the form of a workshop or speculative debate, in a participative and collective way. The process can vary from one workshop to another, depending on the needs and subjects addressed, but in general it's necessary to establish a framework for reflection before calling on the imagination and moving on to the ideation phase. Indeed, design fiction puts creativity and imagination to the fore, going beyond probabilities and trying to draw possible futures, but the methodology must remain pragmatic.

To experiment with these possible futures and envisage the present differently, several levers are used in design fiction, such as backcasting, prototyping new ideas and so on. A design fiction workshop generally ends with the creation of one or more prototypes, whose viability within the imagined market needs to be analyzed.

These prototypes can take a variety of forms: digital applications, films, video games, paper models, etc. They must materialize a situation, tackle complex issues while remaining realistic, since their technical feasibility, economic model, etc. must then be the subject of a study and strategic analysis.

A design fiction project can be completed in a few hours or over one or two days, depending on the objectives set.

Would you like to organize a design fiction workshop to imagine your futuristic fictions, and create debate and discussion in your teams? Contact us here!