More info here: http://jrms.pktweb.com/?p=3589

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VISION CONCEPTS WITHIN THE
LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH
by
Ricardo Mejia Sarmiento, Gert Pasman, and Pieter Jan Stappers
Erik Jan Hultink (also a Ph.D. promotor)

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My Ph.D.
The purpose of my Ph.D. is to explore the way to design Vision Concepts with SMEs and also to identify how
this technique benefits this kind of organizations.

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My Ph.D.
State of progress

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My Ph.D.
Before this study:
(i) Concept Cars as a Futures-studies Technique
& (ii) Design of Concepts Products to explore the future: nature, context and design technique

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VISION CONCEPTS WITHIN THE LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH
Landscape of Design research (context)
Speculative Design (situation)
Vision Concepts? (opportunity)
The study (methods)
The comparison (results)
Our claims (discussion)
Takeaway (message)
Q&A

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH
“the designer is the expert who
creates things to probe or provoke
response” (Sanders, 2006).

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH
New forms of design and making activities, which differ with regards to their time-frames.
These forms “can be used in the early phase of the design process for making sense of the future
[...] exploring, expressing and testing hypotheses about future ways of living”.
(Sanders & Stappers, 2014)

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH

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SPECULATIVE DESIGN
Speculative designers “use fictitious objects at the core of
[their enquiries]” (Auger, 2012) as a way to trigger discussions (Mollon & Gentes, 2014)
with a broad audience.

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH
Design Fiction is a technique to develop "micro futures-studies
[focus] on the everyday life, its short-term evolutions, and the
standard objects or services that might fill these possible futures”
(Girardin, 2015).

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH
Critical Design “uses speculative design proposals to challenge
narrow assumptions, preconceptions, and givens about the role
products play in everyday life” (Dunne & Raby, 2013).

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LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN RESEARCH
Even though Vision Concepts, such as long-term concept
cars/products, have been part of the industry since 1938, previous
work has failed to identify and understand them from the design
research perspective.
?

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VISION CONCEPTS
More than beautiful show cars, long-term Concept Cars (aka Vision Concepts) are
used to study, map, and envision -an image of- the future.
This vision moves from the future back to the present and supports companies in making
decisions and mapping innovation.
Concept Cars
focus on (1) innovation and communication,
following (2) a design-led process
and ending in (3) an open, striking and experienceable outcome.

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INNOVATION
Concept Cars increase the innovation capabilities:
- Companies foresee the future exploring a plausible
and preferable future.
- Companies experiment with technologies and explore
design languages.
COMMUNICATION
- Companies share a concrete image of the future that is
easy to understand for a broad audience.
- Stimulates conversations that generate ideas about
the company’s future at different levels.
- Different people, inside and outside the company,
align their agendas.
Concept Cars focus on innovation & communication

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A hands-on technique that involves:
- [Research] Designers investigate and analyze context
factors.
- [Visual synthesis] Designers make sketches and
illustrations to produce ideas about the concept and the
context.
- [Prototyping] Designers make prototypes at different
scales and resolutions, sharing the idea with others.
- [Storytelling] Designers create a narrative to
communicate the artifact through videos and other
materials.
Concept Cars follow a design-led process

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CONCEPT CARS
AS OUTCOMES
Concept Cars are “tangible and materialized futures” that
are easy to understand for the majority of people.
The artifacts are embodied by:
- Full-size prototypes that enable people to experience
the car as real as possible.
- Supporting materials (texts, visuals, and videos) that
present the interaction between users and the car in a
-future- contexts.

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CONCEPT CARS
AS OUTCOMES
These -physical and narrative- manifestations of a fake
-futuristic- vehicle, are designed to attract and evoke
emotions in diverse people.

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CONCEPT CARS
LIMITATIONS
It is a resource intensive technique
(team, money, and time).
It presents a singular outcome,
hiding the opportunities offered by
other futures.

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This paper aims to identify and clarify
these characteristics to position
Vision Concepts as a relevant future-
oriented design technique as well as
to reflect on its potential value for
contexts other than product
development in large corporations.

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MULTIPLE-CASE ANAYSIS
A multiple-case analysis to
compare 2 prototypical
examples of 3 different
types of Speculative design
techniques.

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VISION CONCEPT
Mercedes-Benz F 015
Luxury in Motion by
Daimler AG, 2015

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VISION CONCEPT
Bio-digester
kitchen island
by Philips, 2011

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DESIGN FICTION
Helios: Pilot, Quick Start
Guide by Near Future
Laboratory, 2015

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DESIGN FICTION
Song of the Machine,
a Lab Project by Superflux,
2011

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CRITICAL DESIGN
Digicars, part of the
United Micro Kingdoms by
Dunne & Raby, 2013

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CRITICAL DESIGN
Respiratory Dog,
from the series
Life Support, by
Revital Cohen, 2008

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RESULTS - PURPOSE

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RESULTS - OUTCOMES

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RESULTS - PROCESS

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CLAIMS
These making activities use fictional time-frames as a mechanism to:
- unlock the imagination,
- gain a fresh perspective on reality,
- and to escape from the constraints imposed by the market.

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CLAIMS
Design Fiction should be moved from the speculative future to
the near future in response to its interest in mundane short-term
speculations. It is mid-way between engaging and provoking,
producing videos and other types of visualizations that both
attract and challenge design research communities.

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CLAIMS
Critical Design can cover a wider variety of times, ranging from
alternative presents to speculative futures. It is clearly in the
provoking area, making unpleasant proposals presented as rough
prototypes and other type of visualizations to trigger reactions.

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CLAIMS
Vision Concepts would be positioned on the outside layer of
speculative future, while concentrating on a particular domain.

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CLAIMS
The design intent of Vision Concepts is to engage the public at large in commercial
shows through refined visualizations that convey positive images that benefit the
business.

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Similarities
We found that the three techniques are all future-
oriented and design-led.
Differences
Because of its business context, Vision Concepts are
mainly oriented on generating strategic value for a
company. As a consequence, its perspective on the
future tends to be on the safe side, resulting in
outcomes that are mostly in line with the brand and
mainly presented and discussed within the limited
scope of the domain in which the company operates.
CLAIMS - VISION CONCEPTS, DESIGN FICTIONS & CRITICAL DESIGN

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TAKEAWAY
In Speculative Design, designers make prototypes and other
visualizations as means (of communication).
The end goal, then, is to engage and (or) provoke a discussion about a well-bounded
domain.
To do this, designers explore the future to develop a set of neat ideas: a concept.
The concept is deployed in a narrative for a certain audience and shared through
different manifestations, combining prototypes and other type of visualizations.
The chosen audience depends on the domain and the purpose, and is divided into
three: the media, the specialized public, and the general public.

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My Ph.D.
After this study:
(i) DIVE 1.0, a design-led futures technique for SMEs

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THANKS
Ricardo Mejia Sarmiento
www.pktweb.com
J.R.MejiaSarmiento@tudelft.nl

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