After exploring how Speculative Design uses imagination and alternative futures to encourage critical reflection, an important question remains: what allows people to enter these imagined worlds and take them seriously, even if only for a moment?
The answer can be found in what Samuel Taylor Coleridge called the suspension of disbelief, a concept he introduced in 1817:
«If I could transfer from my own mind a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith…»
— S.T. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, 1817
What Coleridge was describing is the silent agreement that exists between a storyteller and an audience. We know that the events being presented are fictional, yet we choose to engage with them as if they could be true. It is not a matter of being deceived, but of willingly setting aside disbelief in order to experience a story on its own terms. Without this process, narrative itself would struggle to function. This idea is closely related to what literary theorists describe as the narrative pact, the implicit contract established between author and reader whenever a story begins. As Umberto Eco suggests: «In narrative we recognise the capacity to understand, interpret, and represent, giving the form of reality to worlds that are true or born of fantasy». The reader accepts the rules of the fictional world, while the author commits to making that world coherent and believable.
Speculative Design relies on a similar mechanism. Designers do not ask people to believe that an imagined future is real. Instead, they invite them to temporarily accept the internal logic of a proposed scenario and explore its implications. The challenge is not to convince the audience that the fiction is true, but to make it plausible enough that they are willing to engage with it. Only by stepping inside the scenario can they begin to reflect on the questions it raises.
This same dynamic lies at the core of Speculative Fiction, a broad category that includes narratives built around elements that do not exist in our world or do not follow its physical laws. Magic, time travel, parallel societies, and alternative histories all depend on the audience’s willingness to accept an unrealistic premise in order to explore ideas that reality alone cannot provide. The moment we accept those premises, curiosity and wonder begin to emerge, often accompanied by a deeper reflection on the world we inhabit. Speculative Fiction encompasses a wide range of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, dystopian fiction, alternate history, fables, and retrofuturism. Despite their differences, they all operate in a similar way: they construct alternative worlds governed by their own internal logic. As long as that logic remains coherent, audiences are generally willing to follow it. Contemporary design has drawn extensively from these narrative traditions, giving rise to two closely related practices: Speculative Design and Design Fiction.
As defined by Dunne and Raby, Speculative Design is a critical practice that uses alternative scenarios to provoke questions rather than solve problems. The objects it produces are not primarily intended to be used; they are intended to stimulate thought. Rather than offering solutions, they create situations that encourage discussion, challenge assumptions, and open up new ways of imagining the future.
