Dexign the Future Project 2

Three Generation Personas
Dan Tasse

What world do they live in?

The Shell Mountains scenario. An extension of the current status quo. Those with power tend to slowly gain more power, and authority becomes more concentrated in a few cities. Government creates more broad mandates than they did in the early 2000s. Social mobility is stifled, though the US government tries to create the illusion that society is more mobile than it is. Central planning leads the world to slowly transition to natural gas, then to renewable resources, before climate change gets too radically out of hand.

The Family

(work in progress)

Manuel (b. 1988) - calm and centered. Professional marketer, but never loved business. Somewhat conservative in that he doesn't mind the status quo. It's working all right for him. Met Erica via OkCupid. Always wanted to have kids, but as they didn't think they could, they adopted Gautam. Took five years off work when they moved to Cleveland to raise Gautam, Amelia, and Calvin. Later worked part time as a marketing consultant for small businesses in Cleveland. He still doesn't love it, but he likes being his own boss, and he's developed useful skills.
Erica (b. 1990) - successful and idealistic. Direct focus on career led her to be promoted to COO at a small and growing technology company; became pregnant with Amelia soon after they adopted Gautam. The "Tech 2.0 Bubble" bursting put them out of business, though, so they had to move from incredibly expensive San Francisco to Cleveland. Primary breadwinner for the family, especially after Manuel took time off to raise the family.
Gautam (b. 2015, adopted by Manuel and Erica 2018) - from a rural north Indian village. Active, enjoyed sports, a natural leader. Studied business like Manuel, but had trouble finding a job after college, so he took a part time job as a portable nuclear technician. The company never hired him full-time, so he's been struggling to make it by.
Carrie (b. 2018) - workers' rights activist. Grew up seeing workers mistreated at companies like Uber and Amazon, so organized campaigns for higher minimum wages. Unfortunately, she had to work multiple jobs to make it by, and has always had trouble making ends meet as well. She and Gautam feel like they finally have a stable enough situation to start having kids, but they often feel the strain of their finances.
Francesca (b. 2049) - first child of Gautam and Carrie. Gets along well with her child care group as well as her robot caretaker. Speaks English and Chinese, thanks to the robot. Her parents have high hopes for her, because they feel like they fell out of the middle class and she can climb back to it.
Emilia (b. 2054) - second child of Gautam and Carrie. Is a baby.
Calvin (b. 2021) - second biological child of Manuel and Erica. The youngest in the family, he's always been a bit shy, but he channeled his energy into his music, becoming a skilled guitarist. He knew since an early age, though, that there'd be no money in that, so he's acquired a wide array of music-related jobs in the meantime. Uses a vintage Macbook to create techno-inspired loops to mimic early 2000s music to DJ in a dance club, teaches musical-mental augmentation to rich kids, performs occasionally as an acoustic guitarist inspired by very technical metal. Had a bout of addiction to designer uppers during his more intense DJing days, but has been clean since. Still, his life has been too busy to "settle down"; he's not sure if he ever will, and he's comfortable with that.
Amelia (b. 2019), Ray (b. 2018), Colin (b. 2022), Andrew (b. 2046), Graham (b. 2048). Amelia is the first biological child of Manuel and Erica. Ray and Colin are both members of her poly family, and they have two children, Andrew and Graham. Won't talk more about these in this project, because we have to focus somewhere.

The people in orange will be the focus of this project.

Timeline

Matrix diagram

	Manuel	Erica	Gautam	Carrie	Calvin	Francesca
Health	Aging well mostly. Deals with stress and mild depression.	Healthy, though years of little sleep have led to somewhat early aging.	Eats healthily thanks to Carrie. Very athletic. Starting to get joint injuries.	Somewhat healthy eater by choice. Vegetarian.	Risky. Former drug user, still not very healthy eater, irregular sleep	Asthma, and gene sequencing shows risks for chronic kidney disease, fine otherwise
Optimism	Low. Doesn't see things changing a lot.	High. Successful in business. Blind to some societal problems, though.	Low. Years of underemployment have worn on him.	High; sure that disenfranchised workers' outcomes can improve	High. Despite financial struggles, lives a mostly content life.	Medium; she's five years old.
Urban Mobility	Good. Self-driving car will continue to drive them.	Also good; shares self-driving car. They live in a walkable Cleveland neighborhood.	Limited. Neighborhood only served by occasional buses.Car cost has gone way up, can't afford it.	Also limited. Buses and bikes, but Cleveland's sprawl makes this difficult.	Good. St. Louis invested heavily in transit, so he can use their new rail. Going home to Cleveland to visit parents is difficult, though.	Limited due to parents.
Housing	Bought a nice house in Cleveland while prices were cheap.	Same as Manuel.	Rents a 2br duplex in Cleveland, concerned about neighborhood safety	Same as Gautam. Looking to move up but unable due to prices.	Rents an apartment. Would like to own, but can't get a mortgage.	Will soon have to share her bedroom with her new sister. Not happy about it.
Future Plans	Coast into retirement. Content, but not fulfilled. Midlife crisis may be imminent.	Financially set, but keeps working later because she's not sure how to keep up a fulfilling daily life after retiring.	Uncertain. This worries him.	Lacking technical skills, she's looking for ways to get a more professional job using her people-organizing skills.	Thinking about starting a musical neuro-enhancement business.	Difficult: parents optimistic but she doesn't have much chance of social mobility.

2x2 Important Dimensions

Mandalas

(photo credits below)

Day in the Life

script
pdf

Post-project Reflections

What did you discover? How much it helps to pick attributes of people we know to help us come up with realistic personas. How mobility can be a theme that will so radically influence our lives, and therefore is worth thinking about in broad terms in the future. How this helps us bring the big themes down to the personal level, and help us think about particular technologies that might or might not happen in this future world.
What were you challenged by? Getting into people's heads. Coming up with realistic people. Making sure that our group was diverse enough to encompass a wide range of human experiences (without being all over the place).
What did you question? How different the future is really going to be, in the day to day world. I can't imagine it being so much different than it is now, and indeed, when I think about the 20-some years of past that I've experienced, it doesn't seem like the world is so different. But that's also because I've experienced it gradually. I found myself wondering if the emotional content of everyday people would be different; how the future could possibly feel different due to centralizing cities and power.
What did you do well? I came up with a somewhat believable family, and was able to see a day in their lives as it would intersect many themes of the future. I was able to remain focused around the theme of mobility, without having it consume every minute of every persona's day.
What would you do differently? I still felt like I was not far enough in the future. Or like it was selective. Sure, I had humanoid babysitter/telepresence robots and Google cars, but they felt like toys or ornaments in my story. What would life feel like when those things are just taken for granted? That's the mindset I'd like to get into.

Photo credits

Photos in mandalas:

Manuel: car disc golf Ohio City
Erica: drone coffee video games
Gautam: basketball nuclear plant playground India flag
Carrie: Jobs with justice WWF playground
Calvin: guitar St. Louis drone Pro Tools