Design fiction as a novel approach to cultivate awareness of social responsibilities in engineering students

This is an exploratory study to apply design fiction, a practice commonly adopted in interaction design and design studies, in a technical writing course with the aim of developing engineering students’ awareness of social responsibilities. In the study, participants are required to speculate on a future scenario in which an imaginary technology related to food exists and is affecting people’s life and society. Through guided speculation and critical reflection, participants connect clips of future scenarios to complete fictional stories. The results show that participants’ design fictions contain various elements that reflect the writers’ awareness of social responsibilities. We argue that for teaching technical writing, this study suggests a novel approach that is engaging and innovative, which can be a good complement to the current curriculum. For engineering education, this study shows the potential of design fiction in cultivating awareness of social responsibilities in engineers on a “macroethical” level.