Designers of the Future

Abstract

Nowadays, children are growing up in a highly unstable world. In our popular, shared narrative, ‘the future’ seems to have become a synonym for socioeconomic crisis and environmental disaster. In the hugely globalized and intercommunicated reality we live in, this is a story that children can hardly stay oblivious to. A European Union-wide survey showed that 1 in 10 young people between the ages of 11-17 experience mental health issues, with fear of the future being cited as one of their main worries (ChildFund Alliance et al., 2021). “What are you going to do when you are older?” The questions we ask children have become much heavier in recent times, as uncertainty renders their future more opaque than ever.
This graduation project started from a very broad inquiry: how can we help children realize the power they have over what the future will be like, through a museum experience? In other words, how can we invite children to speculate about futures in a way that is empowering for them? These questions were posed by Nieuwe Instituut, the museum for architecture, design and digital culture of Rotterdam; they represent the ultimate goal of the Co-Learning Expo, which is currently in its early stages of development.
This project’s goal was to provide design guidance on how to engage children in speculation about futures through an empowering, transformative museum experience.
In order to do this, literature on futures, children’s development, children’s empowerment and participation in museums was reviewed, as well as case studies of cultural institutions who have co-designed exhibitions or other experiences with children. This allowed for a better understanding of the context that the Co-Learning Expo is seeking to fit into, and to position it as a co-designed participatory exhibition. To gain insight on how participation and futuring are approached in the field of design, several methodologies were looked into, such as Participatory Design, Speculative Design and Context Mapping.
To truly grasp what children’s perceptions and attitudes towards the future are, participatory, generative activities were carried out with them. Additionally, parents and a teacher were interviewed, in order to get adults’ perspectives as well.
The insights gained in the research phase of this project were translated into design requirements for the design of empowering museum experiences for children regarding futures. In order to fit the needs of the final users of this guidance — design agency Opperclaes and the Co-Learning department of Nieuwe Instituut — the format of these requirements was improved through three iterative cycles. The result was Designers of the Future, a flexible toolkit meant to support its users during ideation and evaluation processes for museum experiences — such as the Co-Learning Expo. Through its use, the main challenges to be addressed are brough to the table, in order to truly create an empowering experience for children.
The final toolkit was evaluated with design agency Opperclaes and an expert on co-design with children, with positive results overall. Since this project was meant to be a first incursion into this line on inquiry, recommendations for future research as well as next steps are offered.