The Cassandra Method: Dystopian Visions as a Basis for Responsible Design

Innovative technologies often have unforeseen negative consequences on an individual, societal, or environmental level. To minimize these, the Cassandra method aims to foresee such negative effects by systematically investigating dystopian visions. Starting with the activation of a (self-)critical mindset, the next steps are collecting a maximum number of negative effects and assessing their relevance. Finally, the envisioned impairments are used to improve the product concepts in a responsible way. This paper broadly outlines the method, its applications during product development and research, and reports on experiences from an expert workshop.