Speed Dating: Providing a Menu of Possible Futures

As user experience (UX) design continues to grow and expand, designers often work in areas with few design patterns or social mores. It is easy to make things that people do not want or will not adopt. To help avoid this problem, we developed a method called speed dating. This method allows design teams to explore possible futures with target users. Speed dating helps to reduce the risk of making things that people will not adopt. It also discloses opportunities and user needs that design teams might not observe during fieldwork. Over the last decade, we have used this method in many research projects, teaching it to hundreds of UX design students. This article describes the speed dating method, presenting cases to show how speed dating aids UX design. •Describes the development of “speed dating,” a design method for probing possible futures.•Describes lessons learned from frequent use of the speed dating method in research through design.•Provides strategies to help design researchers augment speed dating tools to meet the needs of specific projects.