In Intel, People and Practices Research is the group that understands people. We are the group that people ask to help them understand what people are really doing. This translates into “usages”, and quickly moves from the present into the future. We are asked to lead and participate in brainstorms and other activities that attempt to construct further futures and to answer the question “what will people be doing in 2015, 2017, 2020…?”
We've used techniques to get people actively engaged envisioning richer futures and importantly making plans on how to get there. We have been trying to find new ways of projecting into the future together with designers and engineers – how can we propose futures that are realistic, but which inspire and provoke? We have combined techniques from ethnography and methodologies from design to new ways of creating personas for imagining 2014, and are experimenting with scenario planning. Successfully looking at the future surfaces the internal models of the future that have been ignored, repressed, or deliberately kept from view, and attempts to understand how they play out and how they came to be. At the same time, future work builds new models that help liberate us from dangerous corporate inertia and help corporations be more effective in thinking about and acting on the future.
In this workshop we will share, discuss and experience tools and methods for projecting into the future. We will present examples of the work we are doing, and hope that other participants will also bring examples of their own practices and techniques.
Key Questions
- How do you keep the future real?
- How do you design for a boring future?
- How do you project far enough to move beyond the very realistically today?
- How do you create future props?
- How do you make ethnographic interviews into future maps?
- How do you keep participants in the future, not present tense?
Structure, Activities and Goals
The workshop will focus on sharing, explaining and brainstorming methods for creating and projecting the future. Participants will share experiences about challenges, obstacles, techniques, and tools:
- Examples of methods from PaPR
- Other participants will share their methods
- Small group discussions around 4 selected methods
Pre-work for the workshop
Please submit a short description and images of any methods that you have been using within your organization or with clients for creating the future. These submissions will help shape the workshop.
Organizers
Wendy March is a Senior Designer in People and Practices Research, in Intel Labs.
Her current research focuses on the design of mobile devices. Wendy's previous research has included the design of money to reflect social values, smart streets, the use of technology by teenage girls, and the design of technologies for use by communities.
Ken Anderson is a Senior Researcher in People and Practices Research, in Intel Labs.
His current work is focused on inventing the future with green technologies, smart mobile devices and multimedia socially-based interactions. Ken's previous work has focused on innovation, temporalities, globalizations, and transnationals.
