Ever since the slow death of Dopplr after its acquisition by Nokia a decade ago, the internet has lacked a dedicated space for people to casually share their travel intentions. Back in those days, it was also a feature of trip planning services like TripIt which since then pivoted to booking management for frequent…

I gave a lecture at Stanford's CS547 course on HCI, and of course it was on'Design Fiction.' This is interesting to listen back on as I forgot about the examples I used 'early on' that came specifically from film. This was during the 'diegetic prototype' emphasis of things. Drawing on examples from films like 'Jurassic Park' and '2001: A Space Odyssey,' I showed how storytelling and these diegetic prototypes help communicate complex, speculative, often futuristic concepts. I describe the cultural impact of Design Fiction on technological perception and legal precedents, particularly in relation to augmented reality and user interfaces. Practical projects such as the Quick Start Guide for a Self-Driving Car help highlight the importance of making emerging technologies accessible. Examining material culture, leaning on humor and satire is highlighted as useful ways to engage with future possibilities.

Or how the observations of mundane technological glitches and frictions offer a complementary form of inspiration to the multitude of glamorous utopian design visions.

Enough curious things and publications and prototypes and robot news and VLOGS are currently happening in our different bureaux that we need to issue a dispatch with a note from each of us.

Most connected humans suffer from poor ‘data hygiene’. For instance, we are plainly grotesquely overfed on social media with its ‘anytime’ ‘anywhere’ experience and there is no rational end in sight. In this article, I introduce the reasons why I developed Humans, an app that offers a way to rationally manage too ma…

It has never been so easy to build things and throw them into people’s pockets, bags, phones, homes, cars. Almost inevitably — with this abundance of ‘solutions’ — it has never been so easy to get caught in the hyperbolic discourses of perpetual technological disruptions with their visions of flawless connectivity a…

Or why designers and data scientists should learn from the anxieties, obsessions, phobias, stress and other mental burdens of the connected humans.

When conceptualizing a service or product based on data, I first transform visions into a tangible visualization or prototype that anyone in a multi-disciplinary team can feel and understand. Additionally, I generally create Design Fictions that explore possible appropriations of the envisioned data product along it…

One of our objectives at Near Future Laboratory is to help carry Design Fiction to maturity and any interrogation or critique from the public is a source of reflection and an opportunity for describing our understanding as to what Design Fiction is, how it’s best practiced, and in what ways it can evolve.