Mind the Future Gap: Introducing the FOD Framework for Future-Oriented Design

Abstract

There are many uncertainties and ambiguities in the design of future-oriented artifacts. Societal and environmental developments are unclear; technologies not ready; target users not accessible. Nevertheless, designing future-oriented artifacts provides opportunities to either create radical innovations that present a competitive advantage, or to engage with relevant stakeholders in a speculative way. This paper provides a framework for developing, discussing, and evaluating future-oriented artifacts, which was developed based on literature and conceptual theorizing. It consists of a process model and a morphological box, outlining eight categories of relevance along with several options to choose from. Subsequently, we applied the framework to an existing future design project to illustrate its applicability. The framework spans the space of possible design and evaluation approaches and, hence, provides a guiding schema for researchers and practitioners to discuss the potentials and implications of design concepts for future-oriented artifacts.