The Power of
Dreams 2050
A Honda Research Institute Design Research Project Exploring User Dreams and Fears about the Future of AI
ROLE
Human-AI Interaction UX Researcher
TOOLS
Miro (for interviews/ideation), Dscout (for interviews), Generative AI (Midjourney for visual thinking and storytelling), Arup 2050 Scenarios framework, and custom-designed co-design toolkits.
TIMELINE
10 weeks in 2023 & 10 weeks in 2024
TEAM
2023 - Dr. Liz Sanders (OSU), Maryam Alihoseini May Mallah Zadeh, Jennifer Lim, Min Liu, Heloisa Rincon
2024 - Dr. Liz Sanders (OSU), Precious Aforkeoghene, Maryam Alihoseini, Priyanka Chowdhury, Jennifer Lim, Min Liu, Heloisa Rincon.
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PROJECT OVERVIEW
In Context
1. WHAT
A participatory and speculative design research project conducted across two summers (2023 & 2024), exploring everyday people's and specialists' visions of a Hybrid Harmonious Society in 2050.
2. USERS
50+ participants from different walks of life
(21 - 71 years old) and 8+ academic and industry disciplines.
3. CONSTRAINS
Research was scoped to participants based in the United States & Europe, and workshops were conducted in English, limiting the diversity of cultural perspectives on the future.
4. OUTCOMES
Part 1 analysed 120+ ideas, clustered in 4 themes that were brought to life through four speculative films. Part 2 translated expert knowledge into 18 vision themes mapped from 70+ futures, two films for global leadership, and frameworks now reaching middle-school students' programs.
5. IMPACT
Research that travelled from community workshops to Honda's Global CEO and Japan leadership, shaping organisational models for sustainable innovation ecosystems in partnership with Ohio State University.
6. OWNERSHIP
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Designed and facilitated participatory co-design workshops with cross-generational and cross-disciplinary cohorts.
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Conducted in-depth interviews to uncover users' experiences, fears, and visions of the future.
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Led participant recruitment and screening for diverse, representative samples.
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Designed custom research toolkits and stimulus materials.
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Developed an analysis matrix.
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Conducted qualitative analysis and affinity mapping to surface actionable insights.
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Translated findings into data visualisations and speculative films for stakeholder presentations.
THE PROJECT
Hybrid Harmonious Society
This project is divided into two parts, which explore insights from everyday people and experts to understand if it is possible to achieve a Hybrid Harmonious Society. The term "hybrid" refers to a society where humans and robots work together to foster the thriving of both society and the environment.
PART 2 - 2024
Hybrid Harmonious Society Design: Aligning Experts and Users
From gathering users' perspectives to facilitating expert-driven systems design
PART 1 - 2023
Understanding Users' Perspectives in
The Future of AI.
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PART 1 - 2023
Exploring Users' Perspectives
in the Future of AI
1.0 OBJECTIVES
Explore future scenarios
How humans, technology, and nature can coexist in a Hybrid Harmonious Society by 2050.
Translating Expertise into Insights
Explore how AI advancements could shape different future societal models, and understand the roles people want AI to play in the future.
Future Scenarios
Explore contrasting futures to uncover key challenges and opportunities for achieving a Hybrid Harmonious Society
Secondary Research
In-depth
Interviews
Secondary Research
Affinity Mapping
Videos &
Vignettes
2.0 METHODS
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Secondary Research;
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Speculative Design;
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Co-design Workshops;
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In-depth interviews;
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Affinity Mapping;
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Videos & Vignettes.
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While participants had many dreams for the future, they often felt their voices wouldn’t be heard, believing the future will lie in the hands of big tech companies, the government, or any entity with significant power. Leading them to have a more dystopian view of the future.
2.1 In-depth Interactive Interviews
Participants count: 25 people (ages 21 to 71)
Interview platform: Dscout
Duration: 30 minutes each
Goal 1: Understand participants’ backgrounds, their knowledge about technology, and their earliest memories of technology.
Goal 2: Evaluate the effectiveness of our tools and methods, gather insights from participants, and inform the planning of our primary research activities, including three co-design workshops
While participants had many dreams for the future, they often felt their voices wouldn’t be heard, believing the future will lie in the hands of big tech companies, the government, or any entity with significant power. Leading them to have a more dystopian view of the future.
While participants had many dreams for the future, they often felt their voices wouldn’t be heard, believing the future will lie in the hands of big tech companies, the government, or any entity with significant power. Leading them to have a more dystopian view of the future.
2.3 Workshops Recruitment
Grassroots recruitment through posters and community outreach.
To ensure cross-generational and diverse perspectives, we brought together 29 participants from three different groups.
Workshop 1 (Pilot*)
Tech Industry Engineers
Workshop 2
Grad and Undergrad Students
Workshop 3
Local community members aged 45+
* Pilot was used to test activities understanding and time pacing, but relevant data was collected too
2.4 CO-Design Workshops Activities
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1 - The Thing From The Future
We used a speculative design tool by to warmed people up to their creativity. They chose one card of each color and then generated an idea for the future combining the three cards
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2- Arup Framework
Teams mapped "The Thing from the Future" ideas onto the 2050 Arup Framework quadrants: Prioritising People, People & Planet in Harmony, Prioritising the Planet, Prioritising People, or Decline of Both.
3- Future World Building
Each team was assigned one quadrant and asked to envision life in 2050, considering Economy, Environment, Technology, and Society & Politics.
4 - Persona From 2050
Each team developed two personas representing their assigned worldview, using curated images of activities, lifestyles, and faces to guide and inspire their character creation.
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5- Services & Artifacts from 2050
Participants used diverse materials to prototype future experiences and artifacts, building on insights from the previous activities
2.5 Analysis
Data Familiarisation: Examined session recordings and transcripts to understand participant feedback and ideas thoroughly.
Affinity Mapping: Collaboratively looked for recurring trends and meaningful insights to reveal users' goals, motivations, and challenges throughout 120+ raw ideas. Grouped related user ideas to map connections and highlight priority areas.
Insights: Collaboratively turned clusters into practical insights that reflect user needs and the envisioned future for 2050.
2.6 KEY INSIGHTS & OUTCOMES
Fears Outwheight Dreams
Participants were more pessimistic about the future than optimistic, and struggled particularly to envision a "Planet First" scenario.
Everyday Experts
Everyday people hold meaningful and nuanced views about technology and the future, reinforcing the value of participatory design methods
Gender Bias
Most participants chose female robot personas without prompting, raising questions about embedded biases in how people imagine future technology.
Speculative Videos
Based on the insights from research and the personas, products, and worlds designed by participants, four videos were created, bringing co-designed visions of 2050 to life through storytelling, featuring eight personas across four future scenarios (People First, Harmony, Planet First, and Death).
IMPACT
Participatory research that surfaced everyday people's dreams and fears about 2050, resonating with Honda's leadership and directly triggering a follow-up study to bridge non-expert and specialist perspectives on the future.
DESIGNED FOR KIDS
Research Tools
Research Plan
For this study, we used a mixed-methods design to collect qualitative and quantitative data during focus groups with children, the robot, and the teacher in a controlled environment. We designed self-report assessments and planned video and audio recordings of interactions with Haru through the activities we created for the focus groups, as well as field notes.
This session highlights the process of designing the child-centred self-report assessments and the ideation of focus group activities.
PART 2 - 2024
Experts Vision for a
Hybrid Harmonious Society 2050
1.0 OBJECTIVES
Academic & Industry Specialists Co-design
Engage specialists across disciplines in futures-oriented co-design to surface diverse expert perspectives.
Translating Expertise into Insights
Translate expert knowledge into speculative insights by turning discussions and imagination into structured research data.
Informing Future Innovation
Synthesize insights into future scenarios to guide ethical and sustainable innovation in mobility and technology.
MAIN QUESTIONS
How can emerging technologies be integrated into everyday life to support a harmonious hybrid society by 2050?
How can a company position itself in order to be part of the development of this Hybrid Harmonious Society?
2.0 METHODS
Secondary Research
Glossary Creation
Co-Design
Workshops
Affinity Mapping
Videos &
Vignettes
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Secondary Research;
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Glossary Creation;
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Co-design Workshops;
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Affinity Mapping;
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Videos & Vignettes.
2.1 Secondary Research
& Glossary
We conducted a mixed-source desk research across academic research, industry content, and digital media (e.g., blogs, social platforms, video) to capture the fast-evolving perspectives in emerging technologies.
Based on this, we created a shared online glossary with concise definitions and video explanations of key terms to align understanding across the project team and participants.
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Helped the team build a shared understanding
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Sent to participants ahead of time to prepare for workshops
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Improved clarity, engagement, and quality of discussions during sessions
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2.2 PILOT TESTs & RECRUITMENT
8+
DISCIPLINES
Including Engineering, Design, Geography, Data Sciences, Communications.
20
PARTICIPANTS
Honda Research Institute (HRI) & The Ohio State University
The workshop plan was iteratively refined and pilot-tested with 99P Labs researchers to improve activities and timing.
Participants completed a pre-workshop survey (“homework”) to support the formation of balanced, interdisciplinary teams.
2.3 CO-Design Workshops Activities
1 - AI Involvement Spectrum
Participants mapped everyday tasks along an AI involvement spectrum, exploring the emotional and functional boundaries of AI assistance through discussion and reflection.
2- Clustering AIs and Robots
Participants explored visual archetypes of intelligent agents by clustering AI and robot images, naming themes, and presenting which concepts held the most potential for society in 2050
3 - The Future of AI
Teams created 2050 newspaper stories about future AI; while only some groups were explicitly prompted to consider ethics, all teams independently addressed ethical implications in their scenarios.
4 - Levels of Harmonious Society
Participants explored four levels of social organization and visualized how harmony manifests across them, creating reference points to inform their collective future scenarios.
5 - Collective Dreaming
Participants used a co-design toolkit to collaboratively visualize and present future scenarios of a Harmonious Hybrid Society in 2050, generating rich, discussion-driven insights.
2.4 Affinity Mapping & Scenario Development
From raw workshop data to 18 vision themes, here's how findings became strategy.
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Core themes defined
18
Vision themes consolidated
70+
ideas
mapped
DISCOVERY & FIRST ANALYSIS
Using affinity mapping and a Social Levels × Geographic Scales matrix across data from in-person and other two confidential workshops with Honda contributors from HRI USA and HRI Europe, we mapped 70+ futures that were organised in 6 core themes and 18 vision themes
COMMUNICATION
Findings were translated into user-centred recommendations supporting future innovation road maps, communicated through speculative films and data visualisation.
2.5 KEY INSIGHTS
Participants across all backgrounds prioritise nature. A respectful relationship with the environment is essential to a harmonious future.
Guardian Angel AI. Participants envisioned a model for value-aligned artificial intelligence that acts as an ethical mirror rather than an enforcer.
Ancestral wisdom, kept alive by AI. Participants envisioned technology as a living archive preserving the past and making it actionable for future decisions.
Collective Learning: knowledge travels across generations. Participants found that shared experiences fuel cultural growth and societal resilience
Socialised Mobility: one system, local to global. Participants designed for safety, equity, and sustainability, with nature as its built-in limit.
Provocative Technology Trials: What if AI had to earn its place? Participants envisioned structured trials evaluating safety, ethics, and readiness before any wide deployment.
2.6 OUTCOMES
Speculative videos
Two short films using storytelling and data visualization to bring research insights to life, crafted for Honda's global leadership and key stakeholders to explore hybrid futures and the company's possible future path.
Framework & Programs
The methods & tools created in this project were included in new programs initiatives, including one helping middle-school students think about the future.
Strategic Guidance
Connected big-picture ideas to real user needs, turning speculative thinking into new design questions & directions.
IMPACT
Specialists & Everyday people's visions of 2050 gained institutional weight, outcomes reached Honda's Global CEO and Japan leadership, and are now shaping organisational models for sustainable innovation ecosystems in partnership with Ohio State University.
