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From Design Fiction to Future Models of Community Building and Civic Engagement

Published: 23 October 2016 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper we present our design fiction "From a Long Sleep", an episodic near-future scenario set on a remote island in southern Europe, and an analysis of design fiction as practice. In the discussion that follows the story, we describe using a design fiction approach to explore the outer limits of the design space for a holistic community engagement platform that combines affective computing, geospatial annotation, urban crowdsourcing, social curation, and place-based peer-to-peer networking for enhanced urban livability. We describe the recent turn in design fiction towards real-life impact, and discuss the process of crafting our narrative through decisions about structure, character, and action. We then discuss how "From a Long Sleep" helped us to rethink our original design concepts --giving rise to a dedicated voice user interface -- as well as lending shape to the platform structure and informing the design of our prototype. We conclude by presenting 10 design fiction insights and recommendations.

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  1. From Design Fiction to Future Models of Community Building and Civic Engagement

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    NordiCHI '16: Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
    October 2016
    1045 pages
    ISBN:9781450347631
    DOI:10.1145/2971485
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 23 October 2016

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    Author Tags

    1. Design fiction
    2. affective computing
    3. civic engagement
    4. community building
    5. narrative strategies
    6. technology-mediated social participation
    7. user-centred design

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    • Laboratory of Robotics and Engineering Systems (LARSyS)

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    NordiCHI '16

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    NordiCHI '16 Paper Acceptance Rate 58 of 231 submissions, 25%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 379 of 1,572 submissions, 24%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2025)An overview of civic engagement tools for rural communitiesOpen Research Europe10.12688/openreseurope.18077.24(195)Online publication date: 31-Jan-2025
    • (2024)An overview of civic engagement tools for rural communitiesOpen Research Europe10.12688/openreseurope.18077.14(195)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2024
    • (2024)Enhancing community engagement in scenario-based urban planning and policy development using experiential futuresJournal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability10.1080/17549175.2024.2307049(1-26)Online publication date: 8-Feb-2024
    • (2023)Listening to the Future: Using Participatory Sound Fiction to Engage Young People in Urban DesignProceedings of the 26th International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/3616961.3616981(223-232)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2023
    • (2023)Engaging the General Public in Speculation on Human-Building Interaction Futures at a Pop-up Event: A Design Fiction ApproachProceedings of the 26th International Academic Mindtrek Conference10.1145/3616961.3616966(154-168)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2023
    • (2023)Postcards from the Future: Speculating the Future of Built Environments with CitizensProceedings of the 11th International Conference on Communities and Technologies10.1145/3593743.3593784(215-226)Online publication date: 29-May-2023
    • (2022)Toward Civic Co-production: Using Worldbuilding to Go Beyond Participation in Urban Planning and Enact More Equitable CitiesFrontiers in Sustainable Cities10.3389/frsc.2022.9075414Online publication date: 26-Aug-2022
    • (2022)Tales from CorrodiaNordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference10.1145/3546155.3547297(1-2)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2022
    • (2022)Unpacking Cultural Perceptions of Future Elder Care Through Design Fiction[ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes10.1007/978-981-19-4472-7_107(1632-1652)Online publication date: 6-Nov-2022
    • (2022)Educational Design Fictions: Imagining Learning FuturesIndustry Practices, Processes and Techniques Adopted in Education10.1007/978-981-19-3517-6_15(303-326)Online publication date: 26-Aug-2022
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