Speculative Blackness: Considering Afrofuturism in the Creation of Inclusive Speculative Design Probes

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Participatory design is positioned as an approach to address community challenges and reimagine potential futures by decentralizing systems of power and centering the marginalized, moving away from designers as experts and framing design as being community-driven. Methods of speculative participatory design are useful in imagining futures among marginalized groups while negotiating existing societal constructs. While research probes have been developed to support the practice of speculation in design, we have yet to see research probes in HCI that consider the lived experiences of Black and brown communities. In this pictorial, we illustrate the process of developing methods cards as design probes to encourage speculative and critical design thinking from an Afrofuturism lens. We highlight how Afrofuturism centers Black communities in design speculation lending to both equity-driven design outcomes, and an accessible resource that can be readily used by designers and non-designers alike in addressing community concerns.