Speculative Interactions: Educational Contribution for Hypothetical Design Practice

University master’s degrees in design are specialized teaching–learning opportunities, where acquiring professional skills are intertwined with design research. Interaction design, an activity close to technological apparatus, to human–computer interaction and human factors, promotes objective notions of project development where designers act as problem-solvers. Still, interaction design training at a university can benefit from an approach which privileges broad creative skills, critical thinking and reflection, stimulating designers to be agents of change, through speculative proposals. We devised a curricular unit with initial research, practice-led methods and proposal presentation, with the intention of developing a course structure based on work phases, where research through design and speculative design come together to allow hypothetical, but socially aware design proposals. Three proposals are presented as case studies of this educational approach, which demonstrate the possibility of conducting speculative and reflective practice while addressing expected professional skills.