Interaction Design

Interacting with Futures

Project overview & Acknowledgements

2024-2025

Graduation work done at the IT University of Copenhagen in collaboration with Design Museum Denmark.
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Design futuring, is an emerging practice not widely represented in Danish design, the project explores of how HCI methodologies can improve engagement with future scenarios in museum settings. This resulted in three redesigns of artefacts from the exhibition, utilizing Speculative Design and Design Fiction to enhance visitor engagement through interaction, tactile embodiment, and expanded future narratives.
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Skills

Research Through Design – Examined the concept of heirlooms through user research, material explorations and prototyping.
Futuring & Speculative Design – Utilized design futuring to enhance speculative scenarios that encourage reflection on possible futures, exploring the role of design in shaping collective foresight and futures literacy.
‍Design Fiction & Worldbuilding – Developed entry points such as interactive exhibits, digital material, and physical interactive artefacts to deepen visitor engagement with future scenarios.
‍Interaction & Experience Design – Worked in the intersection of digital, physical, and sensory experiences.
Physical Computing - Crafted a high-fidelity experience prototype.

Context for Exploration

Human Computer Interaction (HCI), is a field often not represented in the Danish design canon. Through the exhibition “The Future is Present”, Design Museum Denmark provided a platform for exhibiting work within this field as well as other design fields. With the future as its thematic premise, the exhibition explored how different fields of design engaged with the future. This raised the following question: What is the purpose of future-oriented design? This question has guided us through the project of exploring not only design futuring, but the museum as an institution for gaining reflective- and future-thinking skills. The purpose of the work is to explore why future-oriented exhibitions are important, as well as how Design Museum Denmark can implement methodologies and design theory from HCI to improve engagement with futures. To do so, we have explored “The Future is Present”, through the various methods. we have visited other future-oriented exhibitions, in Copenhagen and Berlin to learn more about the different ways futures can be exhibited. This has resulted in three redesigns of artefacts from the exhibition: Mealpill, The last piece of furniture and Noom. These where chosen because of their prevalence or lack thereof in our empirical data, as well as allowing for an interesting possibility space in their future scenarios. The redesigns explore how an approach informed by Speculative Design and Design Fiction can enhance reflective engagement within visitors. The redesigns engage the viewer through interaction, tactile embodiment and through expanding the construction of the future scenarios; exploring the worlds that the artefacts live in!
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Design Strategies

We developed two redesign strategies to enhance visitor engagement with future scenarios: Expanding Entry Points and Enhancing Meaningful Interaction. The first lowers barriers to understanding by enriching the lifeworld around an artefact, making futures more accessible and relatable.
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The second deepens immersion through multisensory interaction, inviting visitors to engage physically and reflectively. Grounded in design theory and user research, these strategies were applied to works from The Future is Present exhibition. Interactive,

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Redesigns

We redesigned three artefacts to test our strategies. Mealpill got its entry points expanded by situating the audience in a future exhibition looking back on our present. The Last Piece of Furniture became participatory with design-your-own-urn puzzle inviting visitors into a more personal and tactile encounter with death. For Noom, we explored alternative sensory interactions replicating the nature experiences to enhance its impact.
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Each redesign aimed to shift passive viewing into active, reflective experience by expanding narrative entry points and sensory engagement, making future scenarios feel both tangible and emotionally resonant.