Future Vision

Context

When I began this dissertation, AR and mixed reality were still seen as unrealistic or unnecessary futures. Most AR tools were novelty-based, and even within academia the idea of everyday, layered digital worlds felt too extreme. But major companies were quietly preparing for this shift. Something I noticed long before the public conversation caught up, as documented in my early research.

Focus

My interest wasn’t in testing devices or proving technical capability. I wanted to understand what happens when the interface becomes the world itself, how human behaviour, connection, and the experience of public space change when multiple companies create overlapping layers of reality.

Approach

I used speculative design to build a plausible near future, grounding it in real infrastructure timelines and early AR fieldwork. Methods included auto-ethnographic testing of existing AR apps, scenario mapping, and semi-structured interviews supported by a future-world video and a physical design probe. These tools helped participants imagine the social experience of AR without needing to use the technology directly.

Themes

Key topics emerged across the research:

• layers of digital information shaping everyday behaviour

• corporate ownership of visual space

• trust, identity and autonomy within mixed reality

• sensory and emotional impact

• the blending of public, private, and commercial space

• entertainment as a route to adoption

Outcomes

The project resulted in a speculative magazine set in 2031, designed to feel familiar rather than futuristic. It acted as a grounded entry point for participants to understand the scenario. A supporting video introduced the world, and the final written report brought together the insights, themes, and cultural implications.

Reflection

This project clarified my interest in how technology reshapes the way we see and relate to each other, long before devices become mainstream. It taught me that speculative design is not about predicting the future...it’s about creating space to question it. The work sits at the intersection of design, culture, and critical inquiry, and it remains a centrepiece in how I think about emerging technologies and human experience.

Looking back in 2025

This dissertation helped me understand where my practice sits: between design, culture, and critical inquiry. It taught me to look beyond any individual device, technology, or idea, and toward the human behaviours, alterations, and politics that sit beneath them.

It also marked a shift in how I work. Rather than focusing on creating new technologies, I became more interested in examining the systems and implications of the ones being created around us. That shift didn’t happen instantly, but this project laid the groundwork. It pushed me toward a practice centred on exploring ideas, questioning infrastructures, and understanding their real-world impacts....a practice rooted not in making the future, but in commenting on it.