Science Fiction—An Untapped Opportunity in HCI Research and Education

Abstract

Abstract This work open up a conversation about the opportunities that Science Fiction offers to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Design research. In doing so, first, it briefly challenges the term Design Fiction, an emerging concept with increasing popularity in HCI and Design research. Design Fictions are either, manifest design propositions, or intangible, imagined future interfaces, speculative interactions and would-be environments. Design Fictions as useful as they are, however, are not necessarily something new nor innovative in themselves. Speculative design and evaluation methods all have been staple methods of Computer Science research since the establishment of HCI as a discrete field sometime in the 1980s. Second, the paper proceeds to propose that the domain of Science Fiction could not only be useful, but rightly considered, as a legitimate field of creative inquire in HCI and Design education. By reframing the notion of Science Fiction from an ‘anecdotal gimmick’ toward an ‘area of study’ a novel, wide-ranging space for design inspiration, ingenuity and creativity opens up for conceptual exploration. We believe that such an elevation of Science Fiction as a serious research topic has strong potential to inform the Computer Science, HCI and Design research application and education endeavours of the future.KeywordsComputer science research and educationDesign FictionSpeculative future studiesPopular culture in scienceScience Fiction