The term was popularised by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby as a subsidiary of critical design.
[1] Speculative design is concerned with future consequences and implications of the relationship between science, technology, and humans.
[2] These design proposals are meant to trigger debates about the future rather than marketing products.
[3] Dunne and Raby, the researchers who coined the term speculative design, describe it as: “an activity where conjecture is as good as knowledge, where futuristic and alternative scenarios convey ideas, and where the goal is to emphasize implications of “mindless” decisions for mankind.”Speculative design is used to challenge preconceptions, raise questions and to provoke debate.
James Auger claims speculative design "combines informed, hypothetical extrapolations of an emerging technology’s development with a deep consideration of the cultural landscape into which it might be deployed, to speculate on future products, systems and services”.
[5] The resulting artifacts often appear subversive and irreverent in nature; they look different to the public, and this is the key behind triggering discussions and stimulating questions.
However, after the financial crash of 2008, the interest in finding other alternatives to the current design models was triggered.
Bruce and Stephanie Tharp identify the different positions designers could take towards their projects; these could be: declarative, suggestive, inquisitive, facilitative, and disruptive.
[2] The most significant aim of speculative design is to enact change rather than conforming to the status quo.
[13] Speculative design triggers the debate about the actions we take today (in the present) that build future events.
Speculative design uses objects or prototypes that do imply implicit meanings about complex social and technological issues.
[17][2] Other criticism would be directed towards speculative design as it does sometimes present dystopian futures that do resemble the lives of other parts of the world.
It can sometimes be considered as a niche practice that is only presented in highly intellectual venues such as MOMA and V&A Museum, as pointed out by Prado & Oliveira in 2014.
The format and venues of presenting speculative design proposals do not imply a methodological approach for engaging with the audience and broader society.