The Manual of Design Fiction

The definitive book which describes – in accessible and vivid detail – the origins, evolution, and practice of design fiction: the practice of creating tangible and evocative prototypes from possible near futures, to help discover and represent the consequences of decision making.

We find ourselves at a moment in time when an increasingly complex state of the world - and our place within it - makes an orientation towards the future not only relevant, but essential. Today, no future is improbable, which is why the unanticipated white space - the void of unknown unknowns - must be investigated, considered and discussed at all levels of an organization.

From climate change and economic instability to rising inequality and the fragility of democratic institutions, we face a panoply of uncertainties. For too long major decision makers have largely treated the future as a matter of business modeling, an engineering problem, some sort of sexy vision exercise, or savvy marketing campaign to foment anticipation around future products. What we need are alternative frameworks or mindsets for decision making that consider solutions along with their risks and implications, while incorporating a diversity of both disciplinary and human viewpoints.

Design Fiction is a method to vividly render tangible futures by creating material artifacts that represent the implications of change. Design Fiction is as much a mindset as it is a methodology whereby foresight, research, expectations, strategic direction, and planning can be cohered into representational 'artifacts from possible futures.' Design fiction opens up new conversations and considerations whilst augmenting existing, well-trodden research and foresight practices.

Over fifteen years in the making, this book explores the origins of design fiction, and details the practical approach to assessing the consequences of decision making by creating tangible artifacts from possible futures. The writers of this book have used design fiction approaches with clients such as Apple, Warner Bros, IKEA, Edelman, Dubai Museum of the Future, Google and Facebook, and they aim to bring these techniques to a wider audience through the publication of this book.

"The Manual of Design Fiction is an unparalleled, rigorous insight into the philosophy and practice of design fiction from the pioneers of the approach… This book is not a step by step how-to guide, nor is it a treasure trove of quick fix methods and tools for those interested in applying design fiction to their work. Rather, and more importantly, this is a book about an approach, a philosophy, a mindset. And a crucial one at that; one that will not limit us to tools we already use to address familiar problems, but rather an approach that opens up the ways in which we can address uncertainty and traverse new possibilities."
Anab Jain — Anab Jain
Designer, futurist, filmmaker and educator, co‑founder of Superflux
“Somewhere between whimsy and earnestness, between hope and terror, between seriousness and sight gags, lives ‘design fiction’, a method and a medium for structured hope about futures we may dread or yearn for.”
Cory Doctorow — Cory Doctorow
Journalist, Author

Table of Contents

The book serves as both a theoretical foundation and practical guide for professionals looking to incorporate design fiction approaches into their strategic planning, research, and innovation processes.

Foundations | Part One

  1. The future never arrives
  2. The future is already here
  3. An apparatus for capturing other points of view
  4. From science fiction to design fiction
  5. Why a laboratory of the near future
  6. Why design fiction
  7. What design fiction looks like
  8. What design fiction isn't
  9. Are we not futurists?

The Design Fiction Mindset | Part Two

  1. Sketching with hardware and "thought objects"
  2. The roots of design fiction
  3. The power of the "undisciplined"
  4. Using archetypes
  5. On detecting 'faint signals' of incoming change
  6. 8‑bit trajectories: How technology and culture co‑evolve
  7. Designing for implications, not appearances
  8. The future mundane

Putting Design Fiction into Practice | Part Three

  1. An outline of the design fiction process
  2. Notes on running a design fiction exercise
  3. The important work of disagreeing
  4. Navigating disagreement
  5. How to create a what-if scenario
  6. You have to make the thing!
  7. What you should aim to get out of a design fiction exercise

Now what? | Part Four

  1. The tale of The Selfish Ledger
  2. De-risking ideas, concepts, and product prototypes
  3. Feeding insights back into an organization
  4. Turning design fiction into strategy
  5. Entertaining uncertainty: a conversation with Near Future Laboratory

What is Design Fiction

“People need a motivating vision of what comes next and the awareness that more will happen after that… the future is a process not a destination. The future is a verb not a noun.”
Bruce Sterling — Bruce Sterling
Novelist and Critic

About the authors

The Manual of Design Fiction was written by members of the Near Future Laboratory: Julian Bleecker, Nick Foster, Fabien Girardin, and Nicolas Nova. Their complementary backgrounds span engineering, social sciences, and design. Over 15 years, they shaped and popularized design fiction in industry and academia, then codified their methods and stories in the Manual of Design Fiction.

The authors of the Manual of Design Fiction: Fabien Girardin, Julian Bleecker, Nick Foster and Nicolas Nova. Geneva, 2019