Strategic design futures: Exploring strategy and futures to learn and practice design for intentional change

Abstract

Designers change existing situations with a focus on changing the behavior of artifacts. When designers aim to intentionally change the behaviors of individuals, organizations, or social systems, practitioners use specific approaches. Strategy (strategic design) and futures (design futures) are two alternatives for designers working on complex situations that require intentional change. This paper presents and reports three editions of a course titled Strategic Design Futures that address this type of situation. The course includes a seminar and a project component, which are structured into six design activities: sense-making, participatory visioning, designing futures, designing strategy, participatory evaluation, and design implementation. The course has ambitious goals, and students can only learn initial competencies. After three iterations, the course has focused on participatory visions and designing futures. The initial competencies the course provides are seeds for complex design situations of the real world requiring strategic and futures-oriented design skills.