Autumn 2026
Design Futures: From Anticipation to Aspiration
Design is always anticipatory. New tools, technologies, and socio-cultural shifts open possibilities that design works to interpret, shape, and extend. Good design depends on anticipatory practices — ways of attending to what might be — and is, in that sense, always bound up with futures. Yet anticipation alone is not enough. To build preferable futures, we also need to cultivate aspiration as a core capacity of designing.
In this DRG we will explore futures and futurity in design through texts and artifacts that surface both registers — what we can anticipate and what we aspire toward. Participants will respond to shared materials through short design pieces of their own, and build toward a small final project that articulates their own working understanding of aspirational design.
Apply via this Google Form by 5 p.m. Friday, September 18, 2026 (Pacific). Invitations to participate will be sent on a rolling basis, with a deadline of Friday, September 25, 2026.
Enrollment information
- Meeting time: Mondays, 4:30 - 6 p.m.
- Credits: 2
- This DRG does meet the research requirement for PhD students.
- Who should apply: Students who have some experience in design (518, 302/303, etc.)
- To apply: Complete this Google Form.
- Application deadline: Friday, September 18, 2026, at 5 p.m.
- Anticipated notification date: September 25, 2026
- Questions? Contact Tyler Fox at foxt@uw.edu
Spring 2026
Speculative Futures with the Science Fiction Archive of Sociotechnical Imaginaries: Design Through Critical Reflection
Led by Tyler Fox & René Capella
How do past technological imaginaries shape present design possibilities? This DRG explores how critical reflection on science fiction influence designers’ approaches ambiguous, wicked problems.
What you'll do: Read one science fiction story per week from our archive of Analog and Asimov's magazines (1960s-2020s), code stories for sociotechnical imaginaries using thematic analysis, and collaboratively design solutions to a wicked problem (climate adaptation, equitable AI systems, or health access disparities). Throughout the quarter, you'll engage decolonial frameworks to examine whose futures get imagined and what values past speculations embed.
Research skills for your portfolio: Qualitative coding and content analysis, speculative design methods, critical reflection frameworks, collaborative design research. Experience working with archival materials and translating analysis into design practice.
Commitment: Weekly meetings, one story/week reading, ongoing design work.
Ideal for: Master's students interested in futures thinking, critical design, or UX research. Undergraduates with design coursework welcome.
This DRG is at capacity for Spring 2026 and no longer accepting applications.
Questions? Contact rene2024@uw.edu
Dr. Fox's Research Group Archive