Reframing from future to present in industrial design

Design fiction supports the development of tangible prototypes to assess factors in a near future in a more concrete way. The feedback loop into the present, however, remains as a set of recommendations or guidelines for new product development.
This paper describes a methodology that includes reframing specific factors from the future to the present by using two related problem formulations, one in the future and one in the present. The methodology is applied in a project module in the MSc in Industrial Design at Aalborg University, in which students choose a living function and designed products to support human activities in future settlements in space (Moon or Mars). Secondly, they developed concepts to improve existing situations on Earth that shared certain requirements with the first solution. The analysis of the projects developed by students focuses on specific factors – problem, context, users and working principles – in both Space and Earth project proposals. The assessment of what factors were maintained, reframed, or abandoned to create a value proposition for the present situation becomes the focus of the reflection on the methodology.
The findings indicate that insights can be interpreted at various levels of abstraction and, when combined with critical thinking, stimulate the reuse of processual aspects and the reframing of specific factors addressed in the future formulation into the present project formulation. The paper discusses the application of the methodology in academia and design practice after an assessment of its potential and shortcomings.