Our exercise was to pick a topic from the Zeitgeist list and try to quickly understand and “solve” it. My group chose Disinformation and Misinformation, which turned out to be a really interesting one because it affects so many different areas of everyday life.
We started by defining both terms and getting clear on the difference between them. From there, we identified the core problems like how quickly false information spreads, how easily people trust what they see online, and how hard it can be to tell what’s reliable. We also looked at who is most affected, thinking about different demographics and how age, digital literacy, and online habits change someone’s vulnerability to misleading content.
After that, we brainstormed possible ways to intervene. We explored ideas around education, fact-checking, platform responsibility, and designing for more transparent information ecosystems. Our final concept was a browser extension that can automatically detect potential disinformation or misinformation. The idea is that it would flag suspicious content, highlight credibility issues, and help users make more informed decisions before sharing or believing something.
Overall, the exercise was a helpful way to practice breaking down a big societal issue into definitions, problems, audiences, and potential design responses, all within a short timeframe.
After our speculative design lecture, we took part in a short group exercise where we revisited a topic from the Zeitgeist list but reimagined it as a problem set in the year 2050. My group chose recycling, with the assumption that by 2050 it would be a fully embedded expectation possibly even mandatory, yet still facing new challenges.
The exercise pushed us to think beyond present-day solutions and imagine how environmental issues might evolve over the next few decades. We discussed how increased consumption, new types of materials, and population growth could complicate recycling systems, even if society is more sustainability-focused by then. We also considered behavioural aspects, like how people might engage with recycling when it’s no longer optional, and what kinds of systems or technologies might support them.
Working within a future scenario encouraged us to think more broadly and creatively. Instead of relying on existing approaches, we had to imagine what recycling could look like, whether that meant more advanced waste-sorting technology, built-in household systems, or smarter infrastructure that reduces friction for people. It connected well with the lecture’s message that speculative design isn’t about predicting the future, but opening up possibilities and prompting new ways of thinking.
Overall, the task helped me understand how speculative design can be used to explore long-term social problems in a way that’s imaginative but still grounded in real human needs.
