The Manual of Design Fiction

by Julian Bleecker

The definitive book on design fiction from the originators of the practice, providing a compelling mindset and toolkit for any person or organization grappling with the future and its implications.

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. Design fiction opens up new conversations and considerations whilst augmenting existing, well-trodden research and foresight practices.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction

247 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Grant Baker]

This is the how to manual for doing design fiction work. It balances inspiration and education. Very helpful and I look forward to leading a design fiction creation project at some point.

[Rodrigo]

Fun concept and maybe useful if able to implement it.

[Paco Nathan]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Some fond memories of living next too and occasionally getting to participate in events inside of Google X make more sense now :)

Back at FringeWare in the 1990s, we leverage design fiction, although we didn't have a name for it. We did have Bruce Sterling hanging out, at least that much in common. For our mail-order catalog, the order form was a parody of an IRS 1040 form: people had to follow complicated instructions "Check box 3a, and if more than [] proceed to box 7b" then send in money, just like the IRS has trained them to do. For our magazine renewal form, we would mail out forms which resembled parking tickets: "Pay this amount by this date, or else." It worked brilliantly.

As the book underscores the Rand / Gartner / Forrester approach to "futurism" is not sustainable. The art of leveraging stories, however, has a much richer and longer history.