INTRODUCTION
As a design lead at ESB, my goal is to create innovative partnerships, break cycles of climate inequality and empower sustainable communities. I do this through innovating digital products.
Beyond product and service design, my work is in the visualisation of our shared future in an earth-centered experience that meets the demands of customers business and technology.
I practice balance and equality — mediating between the past and future.
INTRODUCTION
As a design lead at ESB, my goal is to create innovative partnerships, break cycles of climate inequality and empower sustainable communities. I do this through innovating digital products.
Beyond product and service design, my work is in the visualisation of our shared future in an earth-centered experience that meets the demands of customers business and technology.
I practice balance and equality — mediating between the past and future.
SPEAKER
“The best way to predict the future is to create it”
Having graduated from UCD Innovation Academy with training in Futurecasting from CIID Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design and Buckminster Fuller Institute I am uniquely qualified as a Futurist
FuturIST
Futurecasting is a workshop technique used to forecast potential futures. It is not about predicting the future — it is about hypothesising multiple scenarios using technological trends and drawing from evolving new research. The purpose is not to bet on an outcome but to be prepared for multiple possible outcomes.
The culmination of the workshop is a ‘Museum of the Future’ where artefacts from each potential future scenario are displayed as if they were curated by archivists — each item tells a relatable story from social, technological, economic and political angles.
Each exercise builds a realistic vision for future scenarios.
FuturIST
Futurecasting is a workshop technique used to forecast potential futures. It is not about predicting the future — it is about hypothesising multiple scenarios using technological trends and drawing from evolving new research. The purpose is not to bet on an outcome but to be prepared for multiple possible outcomes.
The culmination of the workshop is a ‘Museum of the Future’ where artefacts from each potential future scenario are displayed as if they were curated by archivists — each item tells a relatable story from social, technological, economic and political angles.
Each exercise builds a realistic vision for future scenarios.
THE TECHNIQUE
Future Forecast
Each trend and resulting ideas are plotted on a timeline.
Ideas that are far fetched are placed on the outer edges of what might be possible in the future. Ideas that are very probable are placed closer to the centreline. Ideas can result in both utopian and dystopian outcomes — one is preferable.
In this way, the sequence of ideas can correspond to other ideas along the same timeline and can be cross referenced.
The most realistic ideas are taken to the next stage.
End States
Each idea can be hypothesised in a number of directions depending on world events and unknown unknowns. So it is a good idea to create scenarios for each end state
Futures Wheel
The implications of trends developing into ideas can be mapped across the STEEEP framework so that every aspect is considered and the holistic impact of ideas is recognised.
Headlines Exercise
How will the future will be perceived in the media? What major events will be milestones in the development of new technology or trends? In this creative exercise, the future feels more real and the first artefacts from the future are created.
FUTURE TREND:
PROCESS
Research and Discovery
The Future Forecast
PESTEL framework
Sketching Artefact Ideas
Future Articles
Critique and Discussion
ARTEFACTS FROM THE FUTURE
Telling the story of the trend through invented ‘found objects’ displayed as if in a museum of the future
