Speculation about — IVF treatment in possible ( utopian & dystopian) futures
Speculation and DISCOURSE about :
Healthcare
Accessibility
Alternative options
Meaning of being parents
Assessment of parenting ability ( Parenthood license + Social credits )
In this project, we utilized participatory design and AI tools to reflect, critique, and question the current service of IVF treatment in different parts of the globe with a specific focus on ethics + socio-economical norms.
As an end result, we ( Designer + Researcher + Participants // Public, government employees, and private acts/agents) created utopian & dystopian futures oriented around Reproductive health treatment services, specifically Vitro fertilization (IVF) artifacts that offer product-oriented service models, these series of speculative artifacts created from the evolved shaped over series of community base workshop design process to ask questions or more actually we wanted to get lost discover the questions about the topic below have dialogs, HAVE DISCOURSE …
P.S: Since people's experiences and stories were at the core of this project, not all questions topics we suitable for everyone. For example, some people who lived in China had more experience regarding social credits, moreover, someone from the USA had different stories about healthcare compared to some from Nordic or Turkey. Last but not least, some differences in participation depend on accessibility to IVF ( Facilities, legal system, knowledge) if we compare people from Turkey or Cyprus to Nordics…. Furthermore, some participants isolated themself from certain due to political, religion values & traditions, as we had open, transparent approach into design process we encouraged safety and comfort
We Started with auto-ethnographic research + in-depth conversation, and later on, a co-creation /participatory sense-making workshop. In the last stage, we had body-storming and soma aesthetics workshops to reflect & explore the created artifacts.
The main purpose is to create a platform through design research based on the participatory design for a group of people to share and reflect on their wishes and the pains their experience during the treatment journey, issues around accessibility, law, money emotional struggle&journey, smiles, and sadness.
In this project, we wanted to explore both negative and positive stories and experiences, not just think in black and white going beyond to understand &reflect upon grey tones as well as pink colors, we wanted to explore utopian and dystopian futures.
Fertility and the future of making babies
Combination of AI tools + card games + body-storming + co-create probs for reflection sense-making emphasizing with others bodies, experiences & imagining possible positive or negative situations.
Second step : Future people & community jouney map / System & stakeholde map / service blueprint for specualtive future ( Utopian & dysopisn ) Future cone
A medical team that works with robots in people’s home-setting or else comfort setting is a tool that enables people to establish intimate connections, with medical staff while undergoing treatment will alter their life curve. One of the final outs comes from the workshop. In the future Doctors will use robotics as assistance robots (ABB in this case ) to provide fertility treatment. In this utopian scenario treatment is part of the welfare system. After completion of the body storming workshop, as a designer, I follow the process mentioned below ( CAD + KEYSHOT + PROMPT ENGINEERING in the iterative cycle to develop the design further) In the second series workshop, we focus to mature artifacts experience by focusing on physical and temporal form and aesthetics of interaction. Later on, with co-creative activities, we talked about feedforward and inherited feedback of artifacts, CMF, and input out control units ( VR Glasses and Ring final decision to explore different interaction modalities haptic feedback )
Norm critical moment with AI: For our final outcome, some critical concerns were raised as well. Why did the doctor depict as a male from certain ethics background and arguably handsome person based on some perceptive and social norms. One particapts make comment “We got ourselves Hollywood doctor”
Exploration of more imaginary with medical artifacts based on current technology +DIY madness in more budget-sensitive service models. ( This series was created by a person working in healthcare, based on observation and reflective dialog after body storming activity professional language lead to more interesting results, although the complexity of the artifact causes confusion during the next step of the workshop. Do we need to combine, the traditional way of controlling medical devices with touching? Would taking care/ use /interact/control of AI argument device with care & concern & respect will be the norm ?
We aimed to push semantics behind AI with little prompt engineering for who can be a doctor according to our AI models. In the end, to be able to accomplish this goal we needed to use additional probs... In the second experience + social service. NOW we go not too far into the future, we find ourselves in the utopian story, the doctor would visit the parent candidate's house to perform therapy in a place they feel most comfortable. ( Colourful insights, were the importance of modularity, adaptability of service and tools so that medical staff will intuitively perform their responsibilities )
During the workshop, some participant mentioned speculative artifacts used by the doctor was “scary, traumatic, designed without concern sensation of aesthetics “ As a natural next step, we wanted to push the aesthetics of artifacts as well as develop possible experiences of the product by improving aesthetics attributes of medical tools ( soft, welcoming, natural-warm, inborn). During this stage, We organized ethnographic studies for a two-week period ( Digital context base observation/diary of talking to real and imaginary healthcare employees, boundary object of intimacy, and in-depth interview )
Later on, a participatory workshop with contextual activities and participatory sense-making with two participants working in Cyprus at the IVF clinic was organized…While using speculative artifacts as a tool for discourse. We talked about health tourism how couples visit North Cyprus to get treatment, the flexibility of laws in certain parts of the world, and Why people force to use health tourism in general ( Positive and negative effects of this service offering ) This was the key issue I realized during participatory workshops since some of the participants expressing heavy stress due to political economical concerns, the conversation usually shifted towards this issue especially when we haven't used probs to drive conversation, therefore, probs/artifacts enable us to have focus rather than get lost in multiple systematic problems at the same time which turn the conversation into circle complain, As PD practitioner our participant might need to release negative emotions & thoughts but this should be limited activity /.
What if we can craft an environment first for our future kids and then start the treatment? In this series workshop, we talked about Scandinavian aesthetics and social values & traditions, and how these attributes of society emerge into the healthcare system. Would crafting our environment lead to more responsible parenting ( Crafting a meditative, slow, reflective nature )?
Should patients design the space before getting treatment? We talked about the mental & economical benefits of crafting vs time management…How the journey into treatment, losses, and the challenges it brings on individuals and couples.
( In this workshop series, people going through the second cycle of treatment drive the conversation and creation of futurist artifacts & services while the rest of us had listener roles, reflecting and acting out imaginary scenarios afterward…… If we focus on crafting in the center would create more democratic patenting. What crafting means looks and feels for different cultures & contexts. How different cultures and contexts will impact the aesthetics of interactions?
What is craft / design /art participants were quite interesting with terminology or defining, as designer I felt this can more philosophical conversation or academic design research project itself, therefore we didn’t explore it further in this project.
Speculative probs for conversation: In this dystopian future, parent candidates need to pass a series of trials to get a parenthood license even before starting the treatment process. Based on their social credit, candidates would get different versions of the robotic toy. ( A more high score means that robots would be easier to maintain, this rule aims to do this: 1- )
Which parent candidates are up to government standard of shaping the mind next generation. Moreover, they have to keep the robot certain energy level as well as showcase they know their country's culture&values& traditions and pass this indigenous weight of heritage to the next generation.
This whole service has a propaganda-centric approach developed ministry of education and innovation in a dystopian future. The design of the robot is very well-liked by society, and the government collaborated with a world-famous design agency to design&develop this robot for parenting license and treatment approval service for parents candidates.
It aimed to enable couples to slow down and have a meditative experience around the robot. While they can intimate with an honest and clean mind. On the negative side, the government is listening to your most intimate moment. During this workshop series, we talk about the importance of interaction aesthetics and physical form ( CMF ) what is a fun& entertaining product, how addictive good aesthetics can be, and the experience and ethics behind that products. ( Data protection and collection ). To take care of the robot, parent candidates have to take care of the basic need of the physical body ( nurturing, comforting, hygiene ) explain the robot's meaning of nationalism, and why society needs authoritarian regimes. Lastly, there are a couple of hand-held objects to communicate with robots such as microphones, oiling tools, and balls for massage as seen above..
Conclusion and Reflection
Be aware of ethical concerns and people's privacy. ( Offer a secretive, trust the nurturing process. Really more on voices rather than videos, pictures, or videos, offer education around voice manipulation… etc for more privacy. Use technology for respect and privacy instead of data collection, new aesthetics of being together, creating policy, and interacting within the service and physical /digital product. Desire/challenges of being parents or journey becoming parents both norm base way and other ways
Design can help create resilience services/products with + for our society and nurture symbiotic relationships with people, policymakers, and the welfare system by using speculative design to open up dialog inject spark norm, and critical thinking model.
Reflection of AI and Participatory Design
I have been experimenting a lot with AI to discover where it fits in various design methodologies. So far, I am enjoying using it as part of ideation seasons and conversations and as a tool during co-design activities. I am excited to try these tools in the co-creation workshop, the tricky part would be norms, which focus on visual aesthetics rather than aesthetics of interaction, communication, and experience… Imagine would u add this flow into the cultural research kit or diary studies during the design research stage.
Would u create a board game with these AI tools? For me, AI tools are only tools, They are not the design process or more absurdly design methodology itself as some might claim.